Dawnstar Academy
by Shycadet
Summary: Being accepted into a family and having to adopt their ways is straining. What is more straining is being thrust into an Academy for "special" individuals. (Ooc/ Plot/ powers/ yuri/ cluster fuck/ stress reliever/ don't mind this/ join this adventure! / I love your faces)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N-** I was review'd, pm'd, and hinted towards finishing my other works. But… no. :( I don't wanna. Not right now at least. I just need some stress relief; you couldn't even begin to imagine how this week is going.

So, here's a random story I thought of. Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Naruto.**

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Prestigious, divine, rich, and respected: this was everything I was not. Ok, well my family was prestigious, rich and respected. Divine? Please, we were nothing of the sort, but our attitude outwardly supported the idea of us possibly being heaven sent.

Do you understand the pressure that puts on every one of us, especially me? I, being the adopted daughter of this household, burdened with the tasked to pretend that I also adopted their divinity the day I joined their family. I was to show that I was nothing short of their godly gifted talents, flawless good looks, and naturally lovable traits.

Oh, how I fail this family time and again, and I do with a smile on my face.

Today, though, I was determined to be good. We were holding a party at our mansion, surrounded by all of our rich little families that we befriended over the years. There was simple music and delicate finger foods as the chatter outside was low and danced around us.

My adopted sister, Hinata, stood beside me as she kept me company. Oh how she loved to keep a nice little eye on me as we had these gatherings. The girl just knew me too well to allow me to wander all about by myself. I took a sip of water as we looked about, pretty much just putting ourselves on display as the elders of the other families came to comment on how adorable we were before chattering and saying good byes.

It was a strain to get through the last conversation. With a shiver, I mumbled, "That dude was totally staring at your chest."

A small smile slipped her lips as she murmured back, "I didn't notice."

"It was hard to ignore," I pressed, taking another sip and smiling at one of our guests as they walked by. When they were gone, I admitted, "But then again you in that dress forces people to see nothing but your huge boobs."

"Sakura," she warned quietly, smiling at another guest as well, "If you are trying to get me to be nervous, it won't work. I've been in this family far too long to lose composure at an event."

"Oh?" I drawled with a glance, "So I could do anything I wanted and you won't break?"

"Don't you dare," she snapped with a glare towards me, "grabbing a girl's chest out of nowhere at a party like this is out of the question."

"Whoa there," I chuckled with the raise of my hands, "Who said I wanted to do any of that. You are my sister, jeez."

"Like you aren't the biggest pervert in this party?" She huffed before looking away, "You are even a bigger perv than that man we were just talking to."

"Oh so you did notice?" Grinning, I looked over, feeling accomplished that I caught her in a lie. But she only rolled her eyes and mumbled, "It was kinda hard to ignore."

Her words forced me to snicker as I looked back ahead. After a couple of moments, I grew bored again. With a sigh, I mumbled, "So what's the news about mother?"

"She is getting tired of your behavior," I rolled my eyes as Hinata informed; "Honestly you are pushing her to her limit. Soon you will be sent off to a boarding school."

Sighing, I explained, "It's hard to sit here and act like a lifeless doll all the time. Maybe school would be for the best, it would give me a rest from this suffocating thing I call a family."

Hinata shifted beside side me, her deep dark hair ruffling as well. With a small frown, she continued, "She would send you off alone Sakura… I don't think I could convince her to have me shipped with you."

With a soft smile, I glanced over and mumbled, "Will you miss me, dear sister of mine?"

A blush spread her cheeks as she looked away, "In ways you would never completely understand."

Huffing, I looked back ahead. With a gentle tone, I pressed, "But it would probably be for the best. You were born into this family Hinata, you grew up with their ways. Me? Coming in at the age of 9 and simply being forced into all of this… I can only learn and take in so much. The parts of me that were developed before I got here- the parts of me that already had personality before they began to morph me- well those parts are hard to erase."

"You wouldn't dare leave me here alone," she whispered, her eyes falling to the ground, "what would I do without you?"

I sighed, knowing she was right. With a nod, I stated, " I couldn't do that to you."

As we stood together, still smiling and saying hello to anyone who passed, we soon reached a point of peace. While the guests were busy, their eyes not wandering to us at all, Hinata took her chance to lace her fingers with mine. I stared ahead, knowing if I looked into her eyes I wouldn't be able to take it. Instead, I listened closely as she spoke.

"I know it's hard for you here, and I'm selfish to ask, but just please," She begged softly, "Please try to be careful and behave. I want you here with me, not off at some boarding school for a year."

Setting my jaw, tried to ignore the tone she was taking with me. It was too soft and heart breaking to take. Then, sighing I squeezed her fingers and mumbled, "Hina, you idiot, I'm not going to run off and leave you by yourself. I just said that."

Her fingers slipped away from mine, and with a sigh, she whispered, "Yeah, but I can't help but feel that you are going to be taken away anyway."

I swallowed, because I had the same feeling as well. With a weak tone, I mumbled, "But I'll try to do everything in my power to keep that from happening."

Promising Hinata that was just like the promises of how I would be good. Too bad I failed her way too many times for her to actually believe me. As we stood there, now falling into silence, I noticed how uneasy she still was. With a small frown, I repeated to myself over and over again:

I will not leave her. I will not force her to be alone. I will stay with her.

Too bad life had different plans for me.

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**Oh this is going to be good. I am twirling all these ideas in my head already. *Squeeeee* K. I'm done. Don't worry, I'm fine. If anything I'll just channel everything into my writing. Then I'm bound to come up with something amazing. Don't pay too much mind to this story, it's going to be VERY creative. I just wanted to post it some where and not keep it in my folders.**

**Cyaaa.**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N –** Oh hai there! Reviews already huh? Stop it guys, you are making me blush.

Right, let's do this shit.

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Naruto.**

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Even though my family and this home were uptight, they did believe in athletics. Thankfully for me, I was able to let out my emotional and mental stress through playing sports. I was pretty much a natural at everything, and with my lovely father cheering me on because I was more like a second son than his little girl, I had things given to me left and right.

There was no expense in the Hyuga house hold, so I was as spoiled as I can be. My mother also allowed this "unladylike manner" to continue, seeing as it was an opportunity to tame my caveman ways. So instead of playing the respected sports, I was granted to play basketball, softball, flag football- and my favorite- soccer.

To keep in shape, and to keep my sanity, I ran with my step brother every day right before it was time to eat dinner. It was a way to keep me calm at the table, which was a respectable time for all of us- behavior and conduct wise. Also it kept my nerves at ease, the very ones that itched to be destructive and rebellious.

Neji, my brother, was waiting outside for me at the beginning of the trail. As I made my way he watched me, his long hair swaying in the wind with his arms crossed. I gave him a smile, but he only grimaced in return. I knew what he was angry about, but I didn't care.

He, on the other hand, cared a lot.

"You are late," He grumbled as I reached earshot range. With a flick of my wrist, I ignored him. Huffing, he pressed, "Could you manage to be on time for once?"

"Dear brother of mine," I teased with another smile, "It would be out of character to be on time."

"No," He corrected with a snap as I stretched, "It would be in character. Hyuga's are never late."

"Good thing I'm not one," When he grew quiet, I knew I had taken it too far. With a sigh, I glanced over and mumbled, "Sorry, I didn't mean that."

"Honestly, sometimes I feel you don't want to be a part of this family," his tone was soft as he expressed his feelings.

Feeling like a complete douche, I straightened up from my stretch and assured, "No, I do. You guys are amazing and I love you as deeply- if not more- than I would my **real **family. I'm just a tad bit stressed."

With a sigh, he started to ease from his tense position. Our nightly runs were the only time I got to see Neji act like an actual human being and not the robot that was raised by this household. He kneeled down to sit as I continued to stretch. Elbows resting on his knees as he watched me, he asked, "Is it because of the party this evening?"

I gave him a tried look and admitted, "Those parties always stress me out, but no. It's because of Hinata."

A small smile slipped his lips, because he knew exactly what this was about. With a shake of his head, he pressed, "What is it now?"

I shrugged and straightened to stretch my arms, "She thinks I'm going to run off somewhere."

"Continue acting as you are, and you will be forced to run off somewhere," Neji warned with a small frown, "But why does she think that?"

"Well at first she was warning me about mother, but then," With a small little frown of my own, I shifted uneasily and admitted, "I might have slipped that going somewhere else might be for the best for me."

"Oh god," he groaned with a palm to his forehead, "You did not tell her that."

I deflated with the drop of my arms, "I know I know. But it's true! This place is squeezing the life out of me; I can't just stay here forever. And boarding school sounds like the perfect way to breathe, to have some space, to be myself!"

"You know, you can THINK all of this without expressing it to Hinata," He pointed out with another shake of his head, "I can't believe you told her that, she must have been crushed."

"She was," I mumbled miserably.

With a sigh, he stood up from the ground before speaking, "Listen, all of that might be true, but you know she will fall right back into silence if you aren't around."

"I know…" I murmured, my eyes falling to the ground.

I felt a hand on my head as Neji ruffled my hair while mumbling, "Just remember that. I'm not saying you have to stay here forever, and boarding school is probably a really good idea, just be prepared to have Hinata follow you."

Brushing his hand away from my hair with a smile, I stated, "She told me she wouldn't be able to convince mother to ship her off as well."

His smile was light as he chuckled and backed away, "While mother may love her to death and would hear nothing of having her sent off, Hinata has father wrapped around her little finger. Trust me; she would get what she wants."

"I guess you are right," I grinned in relief, "Alright, ready to get your ass whopped?"

"Last I checked, you haven't shaved off 5 minutes to even be a threat," He teased, laughing as I pouted. With a nudge, he prompted, "Start the countdown little sister."

"Oooook," I dragged out as I bent my legs to get ready, "One…two…"

And that's what I darted. I thought I was pretty ninja for the move, but he seemed to be expecting it. Either that or he simply took two long strides to catch up to me and three strides to pass me with wind slapping my face. I pouted, yelling cheater as he pulled further ahead. He only laughed and continued to leave me in the dust.

All too soon did he disappear within the nighttime forest, his figure too shadowy to catch another glimpse of. The trail we ran was right behind the house, so there wasn't anything particularly scary about running through it. If anything it was the matter of finding your way, which was honestly easy because the sandy dirt was hard to miss when contrasted with the grass.

Usually I brought music along, knowing I would be running alone seeing as Neji always pulled away early. I'm not sure why I decided on keeping it in my room. The thought of running through the night with nothing but the crickets and bugs buzzing seemed so soothing and relaxing. While the music helped me keep up a steady pace with certain beats, the silence seemed too good to miss out on tonight.

As I ran, my breaths starting to get heavy but in rhythm, I took notice to how the moon seemed brighter tonight. Maybe it was because I could see a little more than I usually could, but it seemed abnormally well lit within the forest. While the shadows cast to the ground, lengthy and twisting into imaginary shapes, the trees swayed and rustled. The sound was peaceful, and I fell into my thoughts.

Hinata came to mind and what she had said earlier. After that the promise floated by, reminding me that I needed to keep it this time around. She was my sister, and we were so close. Out of everyone in the family she was the one that was always by my side. We seemed to connect the moment we met each other, and maybe it was because we were the same age. No matter what it was, the stuttering nervous child I met back then slowly worked herself out of the habit of not speaking. Suddenly, she became normal just like the rest of the children.

My parents, and even Neji, claimed it was me who solved her inability to speak up without stuttering. Maybe they were right, maybe I truly helped out somehow along the way. All I knew was that within that time spent together, I figured out that she was my support, and I was hers. To leave her was out of the question, and the family knew we were inseparable; which is why me being sent away was such a huge scare for her. If I left, who would she have? Neji was here, and so was the family, but it was me she truly wanted around not matter how much she loved the rest.

It was me that kept her normal.

_I can't leave her, _I thought as I ran down the trail, _I need to behave for her._

"SAKURA!"

The hairs at the back of my neck rose.

The scream was ear piercing. With a drop of my heart, I stopped dead and looked around. That screech was from Hinata, and she sounded as if she were being dragged away somewhere. Panic rose within me, without thinking, I ran towards the direction of where it had come from.

"Hinata!" I called desperately, my eyes scanning ahead but only catching trees. My heart hammered as I dodged and jumped over branches and bushes. At times I stumbled, but only to get back up to run further into the forest, "Hinata where are you!"

But as I shouted, nothing but silence answered. I didn't understand, I had heard her scream. With a cold chill running through my body, the worst possible outcome passed through my mind. Frantically, I whirled around, cupping my hands to my mouth as I screamed, "Hinata! Please answer me! Where are you!?"

There was no reply. The silence was sickening as my heart pounded. I felt the nauseous as I stood there, not knowing which way I was running with no noise to lead me. Stumbling into a jog, I guessed and searched. I kept screaming and screaming, hoping that she would call back but she didn't. The seconds were what frightened me the most; the longer I heard no reply the more I feared for what could have happened.

Through me rushed this feeling, this unbelievable urge to rip the forest from the roots of the earth. If it helped me find her faster, if it helped me save her, then I needed to. The desire pulsed through my body in an animalistic type of way. Rationally I knew there was no way to rip up a whole forest, but my body and conscious roared with this implausible sense. For a moment, I truly thought it was the only way to save Hinata.

Teeth crushed together, my vision staggered and shifted. I was losing sense, becoming nothing but feeling.

I needed to find her! I needed to save her! WHERE WAS SHE-

"Sakura!" I whirled at the noise, but it wasn't Hinata's voice. Deep down, I recognized it but grew frustrated because it wasn't who I was searching for.

There was a boy sprinting towards me, but the moment he caught sight of me, he stopped in his tracks. Seconds later his face turned white as his eyes widened. In his state of shock, I roared "Where is she?! WHERE IS HINATA!?"

It was a name he recognized, I could tell by the shift of his features. With a twitch of my lips, I growled and lurched for him, aiming to force information out or kill him while trying. I went to tackle him to the ground, but he was quicker. With a side step and my stumbling body, I ended up being pinned while standing with this boy's arms circling around and enabling me to move.

I shouted, screaming but there were no words. My thoughts were constant, the same, and everything else fell into nothingness. I needed to save Hinata, she was in trouble. With another roar, I knew as soon as I was free I was going to kill this boy who was keeping me away from her. I was going to rip him to shreds, but only after I found Hinata

"SAKURA BREATHE!"

My ears twitched at the name, forcing a hole into my animalistic mind. The hole was large enough to gain some sense, and with it came the realization that my breaths were short and staggered. I swallowed, my tongue catching a very sharp and painful tooth. The pain forced another hole, also bringing me to the understanding that it was Neji who was pinning me, not some random boy.

"Sakura listen!" He shouted again, struggling to keep a hold on me, "I need you to breathe!"

I swallowed some air, but it wasn't coming in fast enough. I wanted to fall back into my short breaths, the protest of my lungs almost forced me to, but with sheer will I kept up my slow steady breathing.

"That's it," Neji encouraged, "nice and easy."

It was hard, my lungs felt like they were ready to burst, but I continued. Soon, with my legs growing weak, I slowly became back to normal. Seconds later, my legs gave out and I stumbled backwards, falling into Neji who tumbled over. Crashing to the ground, still in his arms, I leaned back into him as my whole body turned numb.

Neji's breath was labored and loud as he held me, his hands shaking at my stomach. I didn't have the strength to turn around- to see what was wrong- but I did have the strength to speak.

"Neji, it's Hinata. She's in trouble." My words were shaky and feeble, they barely left my lips.

His shaking hands turned into shivering fists as he mumbled, "No she is fine, that wasn't her screaming."

"Who was it?" I asked just above a whisper.

"That was your calling, Sakura; your sign of who you have to protect," His voice trembled, but his tone was flat and smooth. Still, as he explained, I didn't understand. What did he mean? My calling? And I always protected Hinata.

My remaining strength was gone, and with a small shake of my head, I attempted to let him know I didn't comprehend. His hold tightened around me with his voice still quivering, "You have been marked. You are a _Certo_."(1)

I remember feeling shock right before my eyes slipped to a close. In the midst of my dreaming, I heard Neji whisper, "_Father is going to be so proud…" _Maybe I had imagined that, maybe this was all some sort of crazy nightmare. It didn't matter, because with that I lost consciousness of the world around me.

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****(1) - Pronounced _Sir-toe._ Don't you dare laugh at it! I DONT' CARE HOW FUNNY YOU THINK IT IS.

**See, very creative. I'm in my little imagination land, so you now have permission to leave. But those who decide the stay [: yay.**

**Anyway, review, tell me what you think. "Shy you crazy fool what is this mess?" **

**or**

**"SHY OMG WUT IS THIS I'M SOME HOW INTERESTED?" Or you know, whatever you want.**

**Shycadet loves, out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - **Oh me oh my! Look at all the crazy folks who are taking interest. Hai there, I loves yous.

Anyway, just want to state the fact that this IS an Ino/Sakura ordeal, but it takes a bit to introduce. So work with me. I give myself the next chapter to introduce her, which means it might be incredibly long. Meh, no matter, as long as I get the job done.

Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto.**

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"_Our daughter! A Certo!" _A man shouted proudly

My mind wandered through the distance, my thoughts scattered and lost. The voice I heard was familiar, so much in fact that I toned into it. It was comforting, hearing something other than the silence I was trapped in. This dream of mine, it was lasting forever.

"_But she is only a girl!" _There was a pause in the frantic woman's voice, _"Are you sure of what you saw, Neji?"_

"_She tried to kill me mother; there was no mistaking what she turned into."_

Sounds like a monster, a deadly one in fact. With the roll of my eyes, my vision darting back in forth behind shut eyelids, I attempted to see what wasn't there. Images bounced and danced, teasing my memories which were shattered and broken. A forest, a scream, a deep sense of destruction; was I seeing the memory of the monster who tried to kill my brother?

"_No matter how old she is, Linda, there is no changing the fact that she is a Certo! Our very own daughter!"_

Certo? In our family? How very surprising seeing as there is no bloodline for the trait in Hyuga. Hinata… she must be so scared being marked so powerful. I wonder- I wonder if she is alright copping all alone. Damn it all to hell that I am left laying here, unable to move. She needs me, stupid body, so gain some strength and move!

"_What do we do?" _Asked the worried woman, "_Neji said she was marked to protect her. How do we handle this?"_

"_There are schools for such things, Linda, schools that teach them more basic control. We will send her off to the best one in this country, no matter how much the expense."_

"_Hiashi, we will lose them both…"_

"_It is only for a year, darling. They will be here for holidays and…"_

"Sakura…"

Immediately my eyes opened, despite them being forced shut for hours. The light of the room was blinding, which was saying something about how long I was trapped in my body without sunlight- because the lights were off and the room was completely dark.

I groaned as my eyes adjusted, despite it being hardly any light. The crickets outside came chirping within my ears, so loud it was deafening. With a cringe I curled into my reaching hands, hoping to muffle the infuriating noise. Opening my shut eyes, I squinted around me to find where Hinata had called my name.

I expected her to be sitting beside my bed, but she wasn't there. Instead, there was an empty chair with no signs of anyone sitting in it for hours. Frowning, I looked around the room more, only further gaining evidence that I was alone.

It was a struggle to sit up; my body was sore and cracked with every movement. When I finally reached a point of sitting correctly, I blinked with a small swallow. My throat was dry, but thankfully my eyes were not as painfully stabbed with light. It seemed they adjusted, but maybe a bit too well. For some strange reason- for it to be pitch-black in this room- I was able to see perfectly fine.

"Sakura…"

I turned my head to the noise, which brought my vision to the door across the room. Blinking again, I automatically swung my legs over the bed, moving to go outside. There was no shadow under the cracks of the door, which seemed eerie to me, but there was no mistaking it was Hinata's voice calling me. I wasn't going to just sit here when she obviously needed me for something.

The creak of the door opening was booming, so loud that I flinched at the sound. Pulling the door open all the way, my feet pressed against the ground as I stepped from comforting carpet to cool marble. The light, which I had seen from inside the room under the door, looked bright as the sun from within there but it only seemed a night light from across the hall. Feeling it strange, I stared at the small thing in the wall for a bit, that was until I heard another call from Hinata.

Turning to the sound, I stumbled down the hall. It was clear that this call was leading me to her room, where she must have been. I was done trying to figure out if she was whispering my name before running further down the hall, because it honestly didn't matter. No matter what I would follow her and her silly little game. She would probably giggle about how much of a fool I was, but at least there was no mistake that it was indeed her calling me.

Opening the door, I pushed through. The room was dark, but again I could see perfectly fine. There was no giggling Hinata to greet me though, but only a sleeping little figure in the bed. Curiously, I walked over to the side, noticing how peaceful she was. I was slightly confused, because now I was starting to question if I had imagined it all. Just as I was pondering on the fact if I was crazy, her lips moved as she mumbled out-

"Sakura…"

Eyebrows scrunching together, I matched it with the same call I heard from within my room- which was down two flights of stairs and in some lone hall. I hadn't fully comprehended what exactly was happening, but I didn't hesitate to place my hand on her shoulder. With a light shake, I mumbled, "Hey, Hina. Wake up."

Her eyes slid open a bit slowly. Without moving, she ran her sleepy eyes to me. As she caught sight me, she blinked, but not a second later she was sitting up, "Sakura?"

I blinked at her surprised tone. With a small frown, I nodded, "Yeah, it's me."

"What are you doing here?" She shot to her knees, making her the perfect height to me with her still in the bed. Her hands went to my cheek as she moved my face back and forth, "And how are you feeling? Are you weak? Do you need food?"

The question she was firing was a bit too fast to comprehend or answer. With a struggle, I informed, "Well I'm not very hungry, I feel fine, and in the middle of my sleeping I woke up because you were calling my name."

My answers seemed to suffice, all but the last one. With a small little frown, she slid her hands away from my cheek and said in mild confusion, "I was sleeping, I didn't call you."

Nodding, I said, "I know, but I don't know what it was- I just know it was your voice. So I came up here and saw you calling me in your sleep and I thought…well maybe I just heard you from my room."

Her cheeks slightly blushed at the fact that she was mumbling my name in her sleep, but her eyes widened at the last bit. In complete awe, she muttered, "That's incredible…"

"Maybe I'm just delusion," I shook my head as I took a breath, "Anyway, what happened? Are you alright? I heard there was a _Certo_ in our family and father kept talking about how proud he was of his daughter. If you ask me, he's being a dick without even asking if you are ok."

"Um…" She started, attempting to decipher what I was saying. It took a moment, but when she did, her eyes widened again as she landed back on her bed in a sitting position. I watched her curiously, wondering what exactly she discovered. With a bite of her lip, she asked quietly, "Do you remember anything?"

I frowned at the question, coming to the realization that I didn't remember anything at all about the day before. It seemed like I had slept away all my memories, which was a strange sensation. With a mumble, I sat on the edge of her bed and admitted, "No, actually I don't remember a thing. Honestly, it felt like I was sleeping forever though. I feel like I aged a year in my bed just sleeping."

"It's because you've been out for 3 days," Hinata whispered in reply.

I whirled to her in shock, "Wh-what? Three days?"

My shock only made her nervous. With a shift, she pressed, "Ever since the run with Neji… do you remember that?"

I stared at her in confusion, but like a truck I was hit with the memory of me running through the forest. Grabbing my head, I let out a small whimper as I mumbled, "Ow, what the hell."

"Are you alright?" her soft voice asked worriedly, "You honestly shouldn't be out of bed, I should bring you back."

"No," I stopped her as she went to move. With a squinting glance between the head throbbing pain, I pleaded, "Don't. I couldn't bear sleeping again or being stuck in a room by myself."

She watched me for a moment before nodding. With a push away from me, she gave me room to sit more onto the bed. I obeyed her little motions come closer and even laid down when she asked me to. Her figure curled next to me on the bed as I stared at the ceiling, my head still searing with pain. It took a moment until I was alright to speak, and when I did, it was barely over a whisper.

"That night with Neji, the night three days ago, is that when he was attacked by that monster?"

She shifted uneasily as she mumbled her reply, "It wasn't a monster that attacked him, but you. Don't you remember?"

"Did he piss me off?" I asked, trying to figure out why I would attack my brother. We generally didn't fight, so if I went to attack him he must have said the wrong thing about me… or maybe about Hinata instead. I didn't exactly care for much, but one wrong word about her is something I didn't' stand for.

"Sakura, you thought I was a _Certo_?" she asked quietly, pushing me towards the right direction.

And just like that, my head was throbbing ten times worse as I remembered, "I attacked him… I'm the _Certo."_

"He said you heard screaming…my screaming…"

I swallowed, the memory of the piercing screech murdering my senses all over again. Even the faint reminisce of her screaming like that itched my body to move to make sure she was ok. With a roll to my side, I watched her steadily as she laid there curled. With a whisper, I told her, "It **was** you screaming. I never heard you scream like that in my life, I was so scared. After it, you wouldn't answer my calls. I lost it. Completely. I was so scared that you were…. That you were…."

The thought, even the word, made me want to throw up. With a hard swallow, I allowed my sentence to fall into nothingness. She didn't speak for a while, but her soft eyes slid to mine with a small reassuring smile. Toying with the bed, she mumbled, "It was just the calling, Sakura. Just the mark. I wasn't really in trouble, it was just the sign to show who you are tasked to protect."

"I don't know much about _Certos, _but that is a pretty fucked up way to figure out what my duty is," I mumbled. Her gray eyes turned away, looking back at the bed. With another swallow, I said light heartedly, "At least father is proud."

With a small laugh, she agreed, "The moment he heard, he couldn't stop grinning- literally hours of him nothing but smiling- until he got down to business. He's been pulling strings for days now…"

I shifted at her words, "To send me off to a school..." the realization of it hurt deeply. It seemed every promise I made to Hinata was broken with or without my permission. I felt a bit helpless for not being able to do anything about it. If I truly was a _Certo,_ which was a very real possibility, then school was the only option. It was required that _Certos _did at least 4 to 5 years of hard schooling, no matter when they discovered their power. To be able to live in society without tearing down buildings and reaping havoc, you needed to learn how to control the power.

"I'll be going with you," She whispered, noticing the sad look on my face.

I glanced away and mumbled, "Yeah, but do you really want to leave here? Me being what I am, you have no choice but to come with me; At least before you could have decided whether to stay or not."

"Sakura, there was no way I would let you go off alone," her words were true, I knew, but I couldn't help but feel like I was forcing her into something she didn't want, "Besides leaving this house and actually going to a boarding school seems… fun."

"Fun?" I snorted with some humor, "_Certo _school is nothing of the sort."

"Either way, we are going together…"

With a small smile, I felt a bit relieved over that fact, "Yeah… either way we are."

X

If I thought waking up in the middle of the night killed my eyes, I was surely mistaken on how it couldn't get worse. The morning rays of light that beamed into Hinata's room burned my eyes in their very sockets. I yelped in pain at first, shutting them tight. In the midst of it, I heard a boy speaking.

"It's going to take some time to adjust," he whispered, and I automatically recognized it as Neji. Turning towards his voice, I listened, "Even without you at full power, your senses will be heightened from here on out. You'll get used to it within the next day or two."

With my hands cupping my eyes, I slowly opened them. I saw Neji standing there with some clothes in his hands as the dust from the rays danced about. With a small swallow, I noticed the weight of the bed was different. Frowning, I asked, "Where is Hinata?"

"Mother took her away to talk," he answered, placing the clothes on the bed beside me.

The idea of Hinata talking alone to mother forced me to feel uneasy. With a small uncomfortable shift, I pressed, "Is she furious with me?"

The chuckle I received made me feel a tad foolish for asking the question, "She is as proud as father, but she worries for Hinata. Her first daughter is about to be sent off to school and away from home. I think she is realizing how much she didn't teach Hinata about… well trival things, that in which includes men and survivability to live on her own."

I blinked, "She is worried about the _men_? How naive does she think we are?"

"Oh, she knows you aren't," Neji corrected as he crossed his arms, "But Hinata has done a very good job appearing to be as innocent as a new born child. Her now recognized mistake, seeing as she now has to get through a gruesome talk about sex and protection."

Shivering at the thought of my mother talking to me of such things, I mumbled, "I'm glad it's her rather than me."

Neji laughed again, then with a huff, went down to business, "So, father should be back shortly, and he would like to speak with you. Oh, and I advise you start packing, because you leave next week."

"Bleh," I grumbled, "So soon."

"No time for adjustments," He agreed, "We need you to that school immediately so you can start learning as soon as possible."

"And Hinata?" I whispered my question.

"She has been packing for the past three days now, you are the only one who is behind." He replied.

Huffing, I let my hands slip from my forehead as my eyes slowly adjusted to the light. Then, with a yawn, I mumbled, "Well thanks for my clothes. Did it scare you not to find me in my bed?"

"Father was worried," he shrugged as he turned around, "But I already knew where you were. Now hurry up, breakfast is ready."

With a wave as he kept forward, I watched him leave the room and shut the door.

* * *

**Kay, there we go. Prepare for some MILD explanation about all this in the next chapter, but not too much. If anything, just a brief little "What is a Certo and how it came to be" but honestly, two paragraphs worth.**

**Uh, what to expect: The talk from the father, Hinata and Sakura FINALLY being sent to the school, (and if I can keep my promise) the introduction to Ino. Sorry if it's taking a bit to set up, I always hated placing out the proper scene. Boring.**

**Anyway, let me know what I think. And yeah, I am totally prepared for your Cliff hate mail. ONLY CUZ I WUV YOUS. *Muah* kisses.**

**Shycadet loves, Out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N -**Red flags. Cheats. Promise broken. Sorry guys, but Ino isn't in this chapter. At least she will definitely be in the next one. Along with that, Sakura and Hinata finally actually BEING at school! Which means introducing new characters! Friends! All that jazz.

But I'm sorry. You know, for breaking my promise.

This week is still complete crap. But. Well at least I have my writing.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not Naruto**

* * *

I sat in my seat, listening as my father spoke. For thirty minutes I was stuck hearing how proud he was, boasting that he would be flaunting this too all his family and friends. For this man, it was a dream come true. While the Hyuga was as prestigious, divine, rich and respected name, there was a fine line between those who are simply known for the status of money in society and those who hold the bloodline to become _Certos_.

No money could buy such a status. No amount of pulling strings could bring such an esteemed ability into one's bloodline. The genetic code to carry such a trait was simply a gift from the power and sources of unknown. Sure you can have money to have such a noble name, but that was nowhere near the respected bloodlines of _Certos._

You can simply work yourself into nobility, but you must be born into _Certo _decendents_._

Technically, my father was boasting in vain. As soon as the others find out it was me, and not Hinata, who has been blessed with this genetic ability, they will rain on his parade like a shower of bombs. But even from here, I could tell there was no way someone would get him down about technicalities. As far as he was concerned, I was as much of his daughter as Hinata, so there simply was no difference in his mind.

"So, Sakura, how do you feel?!" He shouted in joy, grinning as he strode over to place his hands on my shoulders, "To be a _Certo_, the very first in our family! You are our shining star!"

I gave him a meek smile, just a small one to please him. Then with a shift, I pressed, "Father, you are supposed to be here talking to me about school."

"Oh right right, of course!" His hand waved him my face as he straightened, up, arms crossed. With a grin, he informed, "Your Papa has pulled some strings, dear little Saku. You'll be going to the best _Certo _School known in our country! Dawnstar academy!"

I blushed at his nick name for me, and even at the fact that he called himself 'Papa'- which I stopped calling him at like 10! Still, those thoughts fell aside as I took in what he said, "Dawnstar? Seriously? How can I possibly get into there, my academics are crap."

"Yes!" He said happily, giving a deep laugh as he agreed, "Your academics are out right terrible! But, you won't be traveling alone! It would seem that Dawnstar has a greedy little eye on Hinata. The moment I stated my conditions and terms of you and her both attending- well let's just say they didn't mind about your academics one bit."

I huffed, but gave a small smile. Then, with a sudden thought, I asked, "And what of Neji?"

"He would stay here," Father answered as he walked, "Maybe I could pull a bit more to get him in as well, but time was short on my part. I will work on it as a side project later."

With a whirl, he turned to me and clapped, "NOW! Tell me what you know about, _Certos, _my dear little Saku."

Glaring, I snapped, "If you could please reframe from calling me that!"

He gave a small pout, "But Papa loves you."

Huffing, I pushed forward, accepting the struggle of not pressing the matter further. Scratching my head, I thought deeply on the subject, trying to grasp the small bits that I knew, "They are powerful… Very prestigious… and can only come about by the complications of genetic code and whatever."

Nodding, he seemed to know that was all I would know. With the cross of his arms, he filled in the rest I wasn't sure about, "_Certos_ are genetically mutated beings that are given the ability to access a part of the brain regular humans cannot. Now, while the off the street man can access a healthy 5% of their brain, you my darling have the ability to access 20%."

I blinked, finding it a bit curious. I didn't feel overly smarter. Listening to him continue, I kept my questioning mind at peace so I could comprehend, "This allows you to access abnormalities, certain materials that are either blind to us regular folk or possibly only comes with the genetic mutation. These abnormalities are called thousands of things throughout history: Chi, ki, parana, and auroras could arguably fall into that category. Along with accessing this mysterious energy from within you, your senses are heightened to its peak. Most would call it all inhuman, but I would say it is the human beings very potential!"

I nodded as he gave me a look, checking if I was following. With another breath, he pressed, "Now, your senses are forever heightened, it is a trait that will always be on and you will have to get used to it. Your ki, on the other hand, is usually triggered."

"Like that night?" I asked quietly, "When I heard Hinata scream?"

"Precisely," my father nodded as he explained, "While we still don't know why the signs of _Certos_ are screams, dreams, or visions of loved ones in danger, society has just accepted the fact that the one person you imagined being in trouble is the one you are destined to protect; Some fairytale nonsense of a connection and the physical sight of love. While I don't understand it much myself, I will admit that I have seen and heard most _Certos_ reacting the most animalistic when their _Lorum_ is involved."

"Lorum?" I mumbled, finding myself a tad lost.

He gave me a small smile, "Hinata is your Lorum. She was the mark put on you, the duty of protecting your other half. I say other half because if there is ever a time you lose control, Hinata is the one who could bring you back."

My face whitened a bit at the words 'lose control'. Before I could feel queasy about it too much, my father waved it off and stated, "But that hardly happens now days, seeing as schools are being placed and effectively showing newly _Certos_ how to manage their power and live like regular humans. Which is why I wasted no time getting you into Dawnstar, their marks are prestigious!"

I bit my lip a bit, feeling a tad nervous. Then with a squeaky voice, I said, "Thank you father."

The words forced him to whirl me. With my blood truly running from my body, I watched as the man ran to me for a tackle.

"MY DEAR SAKU THERE IS NO NEED TO THANK PAPA! PAPA DOES IT BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU!"

Maybe it was a mistake to state my gratitude. But I couldn't help me smile as my father hugged me tightly.

X

"To think mother was brave enough to sit there in front of my face and talk about sex," Hinata mumbled at the table for lunch. She was a tad bit pissed about the subject, but I could fully understand why.

Snickering, I took a spoonful of soup and pointed out, "Well Neji said it perfectly; you pretended too well with the whole 'I'm innocent' thing."

"Oh Neji thought so huh?" She grumbled with a stab at her salad, "I'll gladly give him a few other things to think about."

I laughed as she continued to threaten. Just then, Neji himself walked in. He gave us a smile while sitting across from us, "Hey you guys, what's up?"

"Hinata is still dealing with the after math of what happened," I teased with a small laugh. Neji smiled while Hinata glared at me. As the butlers rushed over Neji's plate, I stated, "So I heard you have to stay home, that sucks."

"Meh," He shrugged, grabbing his soup spoon and digging in, "I'm alright with it, even though I'd much rather go with you. But, if I can't go right now I will surely be there later."

"Great," I nodded with a smile, "By then we will have friends, so the process of settling should be so much easier for you than us."

"I don't know," he said with a drawl, "_Certo _school isn't a very nice place, or so I heard. So many angry people, and not just that- You are going to Dawnstar. There are bound to be rich spoiled brats out there."

I deflated, "Oh yeah… you are right…" I glanced over to see Hinata give me a small smile. With a smile of my own, I added, "but they can't all be douchelords! So we are bound to find a couple."

"That's the spirit," Neji chuckled as he sipped up some more soup, "So, are you nervous?"

Shifting with a small smile, I didn't even try to hide it, "Could you tell?"

"No, I just know I would be too," he grabbed his napkin to wipe his lips, "You know, it isn't just about learning up there. Dawnstar is known for their competitions."

I blinked, "What?"

Neji nodded as Hinata stepped in, "In their Academy they form teams and compete against each other, it is like a sport. There are legions that have _Certos_ and _Lorums_ in them, all different types."

Shifting, I grew a tad interested, "So, there are _Certos_ who compete with one another? And _Lorums_ are allowed in this fight as well? And what do you mean 'different types'?"

"Different types of Ki within the _Certos._" Neji answered, "Not all of them are the same. For example, I heard of a boy called the demon fox; his red Ki is powerful and wild, the marks he grows when transforming are hard whiskers on his cheek."

"That sounds amazing!" I gushed, leaning forward, "What type am I? Do we know?"

"No," Hinata answered with an assumed smile, "But we will when they test you at school. It's the first thing they look into for new _Certos. _I will be tested as well."

I glanced at her, "Tested for what though? You are just my _Lorum._"

"They will need to know that I can control you," she mumbled, but her smile was assuring, "It's part of the job of being a _Lorum_. So, they will ask me a bit of questions and do some other stuff. I forgot the process, but we learned it all in school. You must have fallen asleep during that class period."

Nodding, I turned back to my food, "Yup, that is definitely a possibility."

She laughed as Neji added, "You know, I think you are going to love it there."

I blinked in surprised, but when all he did was smile, I grinned, "I think so too."

With that, we all happily ate together.

X

All too soon I was preparing to leave. Father had this bitter sweet grin on his face as he hugged me and lectured about how I am destined to do great things. Mother held me as well, and even though I annoyed her so much all the time, I could tell that she was going to miss me. I might have been the family screw up, but I was her daughter and leaving still hurt her in some ways. Needless to say, Hinata go the worse of mother while I got the worse of father- both talking about their nonsense.

And while saying goodbye to my parents was hard, saying good bye to Neji seemed so much worse. He was my big brother after all, and he had been there since the beginning of time. To leave him here while Hinata and I were both sent off tore me into pieces I didn't even know were once whole. He held me tight while we hugged, his arms crushing me against him. As I sniffed into his shirt, almost dropping tears, he nuzzled into me and mumbled, "Just a couple of months and I'll be there too."

I nodded, knowing it was true. He would work hard for it, making sure father was doing his part, just for the sake of his little sisters; that was just the type of brother he was to us. I pulled away and when I saw his smile, I smiled as well. Then I watched as it was Hinata's turn to hug him. That was terribly sad as well, so I looked away.

After that, our bags were placed into the limo and we were off to Hyuga's private plane to fly us to Dawnstar Academy.

My bones, it shivered with the anticipation of adventure.

* * *

**There you go. Everything is all set. Finally. Boring part over awesome cluster fuck fun begins. **

**Sorry for being a downer. I'll work my self out of it.**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N –** Definition of a cluster fuck: An absolute random fuck load of shit that confuses BUT ENTERTAINS you.

I mostly use it in games, but this word is such a good use for the future of this story. BAHA!

Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

It all happened so fast, too fast for me to react. One moment we are entering the academy gates, the next Hinata was being dragged away by these masked men. The second they arrived and touched her was the second I lost it completely. There was no thinking rationally, not with this rage roaring through me.

In the midst of my power appeared a man from thin air in front of me with a book in his hand. He lazily shifted his eye, only one because half of his face was covered, and gazed upon my mad with fury figure. Then, he drawled while putting away his book within his back pocket, "My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I would be the man you want to kill if you ever want to see her again."

That was enough information for me.

"You're dead!" I roared, and with blinding speed I dashed towards him. My vision staggered, and in slow motion, I saw this man disappear. But he wasn't doing a magic act, he was just jumping away with such speed that my normal senses wouldn't have caught it. But in this form, I saw everything.

"NO!" I changed direction quickly, moving to swat his body right from the sky. Just before my hands reached his ribs, he flipped in the air and stomped on my back to get away from me. It was irritation that forced me to roar again, and irritation that raged more power within me.

"Close," Mumbled the man as he landed on his feet, "Very close. But let's see how you do on the defensive, shall we?"

My shifting teeth smashed against each other as my lip twitched with a deep growl rumbling within my chest. Before I could demand the games to be over, he was moving to attack me. His run was fast, and he darted from the left to right to keep himself unpredictable. 10 feet before reaching me I noticed him tense his legs to get ready to jump. 8 feet away, I watched as he stopped with his left foot. With this information, I predicted his movements.

I dodged his obvious kick, and in turn caught hold of his leg. His facial expression didn't look surprised, but it didn't matter. With a booming shout, I felt energy burst through my arm, giving me tenfold strength to smash this man on the very ground we stood on. Just as I was thrusting him downward, my body was pushed with such force that breath escaped me.

In the middle of me being tossed, I gained composure and dug my feet into the ground to bring me to a sliding stop. Automatically, my legs bent and my body tensed as I watched this second man bend in the same way as me. I growled, my eyes seeing the aura around him. It flicked like fire as his hair floated into the air angirly, eyes white with a fearsome glare towards me.

I bared my teeth.

"Not today," the second man growled out like a demon.

"Guy, stand down," Spoke Kakashi smoothly, taking his steps towards the man, "It's over."

"NOT WITHOUT HINATA IS NOT." I roared, and with that, I was dashing towards the two of them. In the middle of me running though, I heard a shout, "SAKURA RELEASE!"

Without my permission, the energy that surged through me suddenly disappeared. Instead, I ended up stumbling mid dash straight on my face. My elbow seared with pain as I groaned on the floor. But the pain wasn't enough to keep me from checking if the voice I heard was in fact Hinata's. It was confirmed when I saw her running towards me.

Kneeling down, she looked over me quickly to check if I was alright. Then, with a whirl towards the men, she stood up and shouted, "She would have obeyed without this barbaric test!"

The second man, named Guy, slowly released his Ki and came to a stand. He didn't speak as Kakashi passed him, his expression apologetic, "Forgive us, this is the easiest way to conclude things. It's pretty much two tests in one."

I sat up, my limbs sore and back aching. Grinding my teeth together, I struggled to stand. Hinata helped me as she snapped back, "Fine, but I advise you think of another way. As you can see, she almost killed you."

"I wouldn't have let that happen," Guy grumbled with a glare towards me. In the middle of his gaze, Kakashi placed his hand on the man's shoulder. Slowly, the look softened as he smiled, "Sorry, after coming out of _Mortem_ I tend to glare at everything near. Honestly, it is our apologies that you have to be welcomed in this way, but it is mandatory and everyone is treated the very same."

I was guessing _Mortem _was what it was called to be in the monster state of _Certo._ If so, then I completely understood what the man was saying. Even now, with my Ki released, I felt like tearing apart everything that remotely looked wrong, including Kakashi who was the very man I was just recently trying to kill. Giving a meek smile, I nodded, "No, we understand- just unexpected on our part."

"The very reason why we do it," Kakashi chuckled, then with a cross of his arms, he pressed, "Have you recently just found out you were a _Certo_ Sakura?"

I was a tad confused on how they already knew my name, but I convinced myself that they must have known we were coming already. With a nod, I informed, "Yes, just last week."

"Interesting," he mumbled in reply as Guy shifted beside him with the same curious look. I watched, expecting for them to explain, just before they could a lady ran towards us with a clipboard in her hand. She gave me a smile before turning to Kakashi, "Evaluations should be done within the hour, after looking at the footage and studying her Ki pattern."

With a breath, she turned back to me and gave me a huge smile, "But even without the special equipment, I can tell you are a special one."

I blinked, then with an unsure smile, I said awkwardly, "Thanks…?"

Hinata finally spoke up, still annoyed with everyone even though I was clearly fine, "We have been up for 16 hours, just spent on traveling alone. Is it possible we get to see our rooms before we are bombarded with information, or is that also how you greet new students? Snatching people away, stating the requirement to kill, and drowning us in conversation."

The tone she was taking automatically made me stiff. With a shaky smile, I mumbled, "Come on Hinata, obviously this was required."

"No she's right," Guy stepped in with a smile, "it's a lot to take in just in one day. We'll show you to your rooms now. Lee, do you mind?"

With the new name came a boy that looked identical to Guy. With the same fiery eyes and smile, he ran over and shouted, "Not at all sir! Please, follow me so I may show you where you are staying."

His pure energy made me smile in amusement. Glancing towards Hinata dropped the smile from my face. She gave me a glare and I frowned with a small duck of my head in apologies. With another glance at the woman who I never caught her name and a wave to Kakashi and Guy, we were off to find our ways to our rooms.

X

This Dawnstar Academy may be known for their competition and prestigious marks, but I wondered if anyone came to know it as the biggest school in the country. The school itself was a castle, massive and towering, but it wasn't the only thing that stood within the gates.

As we passed the giant building, it glaring down at us with its height, we passed the cafeteria- which was equally big but not as tall- the gym, the boy's dormitory, until we finally reached our building: the girl's dormitory. There were other things of course, like a football, soccer, and baseball field. And even though those buildings and fields took so much space, there was still room for a huge park with benches, lakes, fountains, and a training field specially built for _Certos._

"This place is amazing," I said in awe to Hinata as we stood within our room, a two bed decent sized one with double of everything: dressers, desks, chairs, TV's, but only came with one bathroom.

"It is pretty big," Hinata mumbled back as she took her steps towards me, standing next to me as we looked out the window, "it sucks we got stuck on the last floor though."

"I think it looks cool," I replied, still pretty much whispering as I leaned closer to the window to see our view of the training field from here, "I mean there is no way someone can see all of this on the first floor."

"I guess," she said, knowing she was only saying it to amuse me. I felt her leave my side, the wind brushing against me as I caught the scent that waved off from her hair. These senses of mine were still astonishing to me. With a sniff and a small smile as it entered my lungs, I listened as she spoke, "Did you hear what they said at the entrance?"

Turning around, I walked to my bed and sat on it, watching as she already began to move to unpack. The bags had arrived only seconds of us being here, which was nice, "No, what do you mean?"

"They said you were special and even Kakashi seemed a bit surprised when you stated you have only just discovered you are a _Certo,_" Her gray eyes turned to me as she finished placing a shirt within her drawer, "You must have done something pretty incredible."

I frowned, but understood what she was saying. Kakashi did looked surprised, and even Guy had a curious expression. My thoughts reeled as I said carefully, "I don't know what I did, though. It all seemed like mad rage from within my eyes."

"All because you thought it was all real," Hinata teased softly. I glanced at her with a frown, but she only gave me a soft smile in return. Narrowing my eyes, I looked away with a huff, "How naive."

"I can't help the reactions I have to you," I snapped, and then with a sudden thought, I added, "I honestly can't! Obviously it is in my blood and you are mine to protect. The moment anything happens to you, I am not able to find control."

"You don't have to explain," She whispered, and I listened as her footsteps moved across the ground. Her scent reached me again, and with a small inhale, I turned my eyes to her only for her to bend down and tease with a smirk, "I know exactly what you are, I just think it's cute you react so fiercely just for me."

Setting my jaw, I looked away again, "Shut up, Hinata."

She began to laugh and in the middle of it came a knock. We both looked towards the door, but as Hinata walked to answer it, heard faintly-

"Naruto what the hell, you can't bother them now, they just moved in!" It was a girl, and she sounded annoyed.

"Shh, Ino, it's fine." Whispered a boy in return, "I just want to see what this _Certo _looks like. I can sense they're strong."

"Ugh," replied the girl with an annoyed huff, "You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Just as she finished, Hinata opened the door. I stood up from my bed, feeling uneasy that Hinata had stepped so far away to open a door with people unknown on the other side. As it fully opened, I took in a blond boy and girl standing in the hall- the boy grinning from ear to ear and the girl giving off an apologetic smile.

"Hey!" Shouted the boy with an offer of his hand, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and this is my _Lorum, _Ino Yamanaka! We are here to greet you officially to the neighborhood!"

Hinata took his hand without thought as I watched him continue to grin. Of course I knew he was partially lying, but I didn't speak up. Instead, I walked over in a bit of silence but a small frown on my face. When I was standing right next to Hinata, I noticed the girl- Ino- was looking at me and the frown I held. Feeling it rude, I offered a small smile and said politely, "Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno and this is my sister Hinata Hyuga. Thanks so much for the amazing greeting."

Ino's eyes rose at the sound of Hinata's last name, but Naruto didn't seem to find it of any interest. Instead, he turned to me and stated, "So are you the _Certo _within this duo? Honestly, I can smell your Ki from here."

It was curious the way he could sense my Ki- by smell- but I could sense his by sight. His aura was fiery red with a bubbling rage to it. As of now, in his calm state, it only looked like just simple bubbles floating about care freely. With a smile, I added, "And I can see yours. Yeah, I'm the _Certo_."

His grin shifted into a smile of interest, "Mind telling me what your power is."

"Naruto!" Ino stepped in with an annoyed glare, "That is rude. We don't even know them."

"No it's fine," I said softly, giving Ino a reassuring smile before going back to the boy, "We actually just arrived, as you know, so we haven't gotten a clue what my power is."

He deflated at the news, but Ino continued to watch me curiously. As she did, I took in how blond her hair was, and how crisp blue her eyes were. With a whole new smile, I sparked, "So, is your room far from here?"

Hinata tensed at the question, I could tell by the rustling noise her hair made as it bunched at her shoulder. I glanced over to see her frowning only faintly. There wasn't much time to understand what was wrong because Ino was answering my question, "Actually, just a floor below. We had heard someone new had joined the school and my idiot friend here wanted to harass you. I'm so sorry for this."

I gave her a grin, "It's not a problem at all."

"Yeah we would be curious to," Hinata said conversationally, and then she added, "But we have to get ready to go to the head office soon to figure out what Sakura is. Sorry to rush you off, but we honestly don't have much time."

"Oh no!" Ino rushed, with a smile, "I totally get it! You have to figure that stuff out! Plus I think they are going to give you your schedule too, so it should be great!" With a grab of Naruto's ears, she turned to me and smiled, "It was honestly nice to meet you. When you get back, if it's soon enough, we should go to dinner together! I mean, assuming if you don't want to eat by yourself, you have us as friends already."

"Ow Ino," complained Naruto as he as drug off, "That freaking hurts. Ow ow wo." Before they completely left from ear shot, he called, "It was great meeting you! Let's have dinner together some time!"

And with that, they were both gone.

I closed the door as Hinata walked away. With a grin, I stated excitedly, "Well that didn't seem so hard at all! Look, our first friends!"

Hinata glanced at me, and when she saw how happy I looked, smiled as well, "Yeah, that was pretty easy. Now hurry and unpack, we need to go to the head office."

I obeyed and did what I had to. It took forever and I complained the whole time, but I went as fast as I could because I was excited to figure out what type of Ki and what power I held.

X

"Sakura Haruno," I gave my name to the lady at the front desk. Seconds later, I was passed a paper with weird lines and colors with a body standing with arms and legs apart. I stared at it with some confusion; Hinata looked over my shoulder without a clue as well. But not even ten seconds passed until the lady from the entrance appeared.

"Sakura!" She greeted with a smile, "Hey! It's good that I got here just as you got your chart. My lovely boss likes to make me late. Oh, forgive me, my name is Shitzune."

I smiled, "Oh, hey. Yeah it's great because I don't have a clue what I am looking at."

"Of course not!" She laughed with a smile as she bent down to look as her pointer finger ran through lines that flowed throughout the body, "See, this is your Ki flow- And may I say, it is absolutely beautiful."

A blush ran through my cheeks as she spoke, but I kept quiet for her to continue, "Now, as you can see, it's pretty strong and hectic, but most _Certo's_ have chaotic Ki. What makes yours so unique is that your Ki flows precisely through the natural stream of energy with your body."

I nodded as she trailed along the line that ran through the middle of my arms all the way to my shoulders before dipping into the core of my being. But those weren't the only lines; there was a main one that flowed everywhere through my body.

"Now, what this means is that you naturally have Ki control. Which is incredible," Shitzune gushed as she pulled away to stand straight and look at me, "People train for years just to get what you were born with. That isn't all!" With a rush and a paper placed on top of the one I already held, she continued, "You have the ability to channel and move your Ki so fluidly that you can gather more energy to a certain parts of your body!"

Hinata and I stared at the paper. It was an image of me having Kakashi in my hand and almost being smashed to the ground. We noticed the buildup of what looked like a green and blue flare on the hand in which I was holding him. As I stared, Shitzune continued.

"If Kakashi wasn't saved, you would have literally crushed him and demolished the land around you. Your strength with Ki is incredible! And very delicate!" I felt a bubble of eagerness build within. With a glance towards Hinata, I saw her smile in approval as well, "Besides that, it would seem _Certo _gaming wise- commonly known as Lodus- that you are a grade A defense."

I deflated, "Defense you say? I thought I would be offensive with my power."

Shitzune gave me reassuring smile, "Your Ki could very well teeter totter you between the two, but I say defense because when in _Mortem _you retain your rational thoughts and expertly take notice of small things; Ie the way you were able to predict Kakashi's kick just from watching his movements." With an amused little smile, she added, "Not very many can do that. Defensive _Certos_ are hard to come by. You will be recruited in no time."

I brightened at the thought.

"So what of our schedules?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, they are right here." She passed us the papers and we looked over them to realize they were exactly the same with each other, "For now, you guys have the same schedule. It's easier for the adjustment of you both and allows no losing of control until Sakura is able to be at ease without you around."

Hinata glanced at me with a smile and I rolled my eyes. Shitzune pressed as we did our scene, "It's very common for _Certos _to become uneasy and end up accidently releasing Ki without their _Lorum _around. The worry of their safety almost always drives them to this incident. We just like to make sure all is well before separating the two of you."

Nodding in understanding, I gave Hinata and sneering expression, which she only laughed at.

"Other than that, your classes start tomorrow. You can go off and go back to your dorms or go have some lunch until dinner is served. Anything you want! So, I'll be taking my leave, I have lots of work to do. Have fun at Dawnstar Academy!"

She waved as she left with a smile. I waved back as well.

"Defensive _Certo _with the natural ability to control and burst my Ki, huh?" I mumbled with a grin, "Now, don't I sound deadly already."

* * *

**Boom, there we have it. I know Sakura might sound boring for now, but I'm saving the awesome discovery powers for later :D.**

**Besides that, there goes Ino! And look, instant friendship! I'm excitedddd.**

**Tell meh watcha think fools**

**I love you hard.**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N - **My chapters need to start getting longer so I don't have like 50 chapters.

Anyway, here ya go. Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto**

* * *

"Their meals here are pretty delicious," I commented with a sigh of contempt, my belly full. Lunch at Dawnstar left you pretty stuffed.

Hinata pushed the door open as we left, giving me a smile, "Yeah, it is pretty good."

With a glance around, we both watched as students chattered and walked about. But in the crowd we noticed two different school uniforms: One had a black sweater vest with a weird crest on the left side of the chest. Under the vest students wore a short sleeved white collar shirt with a green tie- which matched the crest. For bottoms they wore these loose baggy pants that were a deep off color green (like an army green) with black boots.

For the students who didn't wear that uniform, they looked pretty normal; Average school uniform with white and blue. It would seem the girls and boys in the battle type school uniform both wore pants while in the other uniform girls wore skirts and boys wore dress pants.

"Huh," I mumbled with a glance towards Hinata, "I wonder if we will be sent one. And why are there two different types of uniforms? Is one for _Lorums_ and one for _Certos_?"

"No," Hinata answered as she stared curiously at the students, "This school has academics as well training. I'm guessing the students in regular uniform are the ones attending just for school. But I do believe _Lorums_ wear that uniform as well. So technically you are right, the battle school uniform is probably just for _Certos._"

"Awesome," I grinned, checking out how cool they looked as they walked past, "I'm going to look so bad ass."

"Yeah, while I have to skip around in a skirt all day," Hinata replied with a grumble, "Lovely."

I laughed as we started to wander off. During our walk, I kept glancing around, making sure we could see the girl's dorm from where we were. The place was so big; I was worried we would get lost without having some sort of general direction of how to return. But our building was so tall, no matter how much we wandered it was still visible. Eventually, we landed ourselves next to a lake, which made me believe that we were now at the park.

I threw a rock in as Hinata stood and took in the scenery. As the rock splashed, I noticed that across the lake was a sudden flare of red and green energy. Stiffening, I stared.

"Hinata," I mumbled in warning.

"Yeah," She said softly, "I can't see their Ki, but I can feel it… so powerful."

Whatever was happening across the lake, it seemed to be escalating. As the two forces stood, gathering more and more Ki, the leaves and branches shifted around them. I watched as the green Ki rounded perfectly in a circle. The deep red energy didn't look as neat as the green. Instead, it flared at all ends, raging into the sky like spikes. Then, in a blink of an eye, a roar burst through the air as they both charged at each other.

"Take him down, Gara!" Yelled a girl. I shifted and saw someone standing behind the red force with a smirk on her face.

"Choji, show him who's boss!" With another shift, I saw a boy standing behind the green, his arms crossed with an analyzing expression.

The forces hit each other at full strength. The energy around them slammed and rebounded against each other, forcing a gust of air to speed our way. Trees around us wheezed and bent just by the sheer power of the wind. Without thinking, I turned to Hinata and wrapped my arms around her, my body shielding her from the gust.

I held her tight until it calmed down. Glancing at her, I checked to see if she was ok. She nodded, a bit shaken but otherwise fine. With a glare, I whirled back to the fight.

"Choji can roll all he wants; it's no match for Gara's Ki!" Yelled the girl from one end of the field.

"Too bad there is no strategy in simply using Ki as a wave of sand!" The boy shouted in response as both of the _Certos _darted for each other again.

"What the hell," I murmured, watching the _Certos_ hit each other again and again, each time a blow of wind being thrust somewhere. Luckily, they were all pretty distant from us.

"What's happening?" Hinata asked from behind my shoulder because I had refused to let her be completely exposed to the fight.

"You can't see them?" I asked with a glance back.

"No," She shook her head in response, peeking out a little more, "They are moving too fast to see."

With a frown, I turned back to the battle. The round green Ki was tossed in the air, but as he fell, the energy started to spin like a huge ball hurtling towards the earth. On the ground, red Ki darted at each direction before making a sharp turn into the sky.

"BACK OUT NOW AND HE WON'T GET HURT!" Yelled the girl.

"Temari the day I forfeit a match to you, is the day I give up on life completely!" Yelled the boy in response.

"Shit", I mumbled, turning back to Hinata and wrapping my arms back around her.

"What?" She asked worriedly, but allowed me to tower over her.

"It's about to be a fucking tornado." I gritted while holding her close and shutting my eyes.

After a moment, though, nothing happened. I opened eyes slowly in fit of confusion. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that now there were just four people grouped together, the boy and girl shaking hands as the _Certos _simple stood by.

"Good thing you aren't crazy," The girl joked with a grin.

"We'll get you at Lodus, don't worry." The boy replied with a smirk

Straightening out, I turned and frowned slightly as I watched the group disperse and go their separate ways. After a moment of silence, I mumbled, "Looks like they were just practicing. Jeez, how dangerous."

"How can you tell?" Hinata asked, finally stepping away from behind me.

I scratched my head and replied, "I heard them talking from here. They were actually pretty loud."

"Your senses are incredible," She mumbled. Over the past couple of days, she has stated that to me quite often. In response I grinned.

Then with a thought, I darted my vision to find the girl who was just fighting, "I wonder if they have a team."

"Don't you think you should be worrying about school first before joining a legion?" Hinata asked with a roll of her eyes. Even though she disagreed, she followed me as I started to walk across the lake.

"They looked pretty powerful, Hinata," I explained while searching, "If I can get in with them, I should be set. And maybe they are looking for a defense _Certo._ I'm grade A after all, I should be able to convince them to let me in."

"Sakura," she whined from behind, but I ignored her.

We eventually made our way around the lake and to the field where the two _Certos_ were fighting. The ground looked scared and bruised from past battles besides the one that just happened. It suddenly hit me that we weren't at the park, but at one of the training areas. Turning to the right, I walked where I saw the girl last.

While there was an open field, there were trees all around us. It was through here where I saw the girl walking, and I hoped it was easy to find the main sidewalk if we traveled deep enough. To my absolute relief, the small forest wasn't thick at all and I could see students laughing and passing by. In the midst of the traffic stood the girl and her _Certo._

But it wasn't only them, Ino and Naruto were there too.

"Hey!" I called, jogging up with a grin, "We thought we'd never see you again in this huge place."

"Oh hey!" Naruto grinned, waving us over as Hinata followed me, "Did you get to figure out what you were?"

"Idiot!" Ino scolded from beside him, "Why don't you ask how they are doing first."

His grin turned into a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his head, "I'm sorry, it's just our captain is desperate for a new member, and I've been trying hard for her."

"Oh," I nodded as I came to a stop in front of the small group, "It's no big deal, I understand. Anyway, I found out I was a grade A defensive _Certo _with natural Ki control!" My tone came out boasting as I grinned.

Naruto's eyebrows raised with a low whistle, and even Ino looked impressed. Hinata, on the other hand, dug her elbow in my rib, "Why don't you act a bit more humble?"

Wincing in pain, I gave a small smile, "Oh, yeah sorry."

"No, that is amazing! Grade A defense? You must retain a lot of yourself when in _Mortem._ Not very many can say the same," Naruto gushed with a twinkle in his eye.

In the middle of feeling like I was absolutely awesome, a girl's voice came from nowhere, "I'm sorry, you don't know me, but you said you were defense right? Have you already been recruited?"

I turned to the voice and saw a tall sandy blond hair girl with brown eyes staring me down intensely. Blinking, I shifted and said with some embarrassment, "Well no. We just got here see, so I haven't really been able to find a team."

"No reason to look any further," She pressed as soon as she was finished, "My name is Temari and I would like to formally invite you to Legion 7."

The announcement surprised me to the point of speechlessness. In my shock, Ino stepped in, "What the hell you guys? Seriously, why don't we ask her about her freaking day before we start talking about Lodus."

"This is what we've been looking for, Ino," Naruto pressed with a glance to her before giving me a desperate look, "We've been a member short for half of the semester. Our last guy completely left us with no word of warning. We've been out of competitions ever since. With you, we can get right back into it!"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Hinata stepped in, "Is your squad any good?" Blinking, I turned to her and gave her a look, but she only shrugged and explained, "You are the one who wants to get into a good legion. I'm just checking their status."

"We were pretty good when we had Shikamaru," Temari explained, not looking too upset about the question, "But he formed his own group and, like Naruto said, that kicked us down to only two _Certos _and two _Lorums._ You are required a team of 6 to compete, so you guys will be perfect."

I opened my mouth again, but Hinata stepped in another time, "What are your _Certos_ like?"

Huffing, I rolled my eyes to Hinata, but she merely shrugged.

"Naruto here is pretty wild. His Ki is powerful, but hard to control. Maybe you've heard of him, he's known as the fox demon." Temari informed with a point at the grinning blond.

Blinking, I perked and gushed, "You are the demon fox _Certo_?"

He nodded proudly as Temari continued, "Gaara over here is my little brother and my _Certo_. He has some pretty good conscious and Ki control in _Mortem_. Instead of raging energy like Naruto, Gaara's Ki actually flows and pools outside of his body." I glanced over at the red head boy as she spoke. When he noticed my eyes, he gave me a small smile, but it was so faint that I might have imagined it, "It allows him to manipulate it, like into waves or sharp rods. He doesn't have a special name, but he's usually referred to as Gaara of the Sand, because of the way his Ki flows and shapes so easily."

"That's pretty awesome," I complemented. With a definite smile, Gaara thanked me.

"_Lorum _wise, I am the captain. In competitions, I'm usually the one to come up with the strategy. Ino over here is our distraction guru," Glancing at the small blond, she gave me a smirk. I smiled back, "It might sound pretty dumb, but honestly it's useful as hell. Um besides that, that's pretty much it. What about you two, do you want to explain a bit more of what you can do?"

"Oh, well," I started, looking at my hands as if they would suddenly give me answers, "I have natural Ki control. Shitzune said I'm able to gather more Ki at a certain point of my body. During my test, I almost smashed Kakashi to bits. She said that if Guy hadn't saved him, I would have crushed him and demolished the land."

Naruto did another low whistle while Temari nodded thoughtfully with a cross of her arms, "That's pretty impressive. Can you manage to gather your Ki and shoot it outward?"

The question stumped me. I opened my mouth with a confused 'uh' while Hinata stepped in for the save, "She doesn't know much beyond what was told her in this morning. I'm sure with some training and practice we could see what other skills she has."

I gave Hinata a grateful smile as Ino piped in, "And what about you, Hinata? Do you have any special talents?"

"None that I can think of…" Her gaze fell to the floor.

"No worries," Temari said with an assuring smile, "At practices we will see what you are good at."

"So… you will join us, Sakura?" Naruto asked, giving me a worried look. When I smiled and nodded, he fist pumped, "Finally! Legion 7 is back in the game!"

Even Ino was smiling as well as Temari gave me a grateful look, "You won't regret it. With some hard training, I think we can have our first competition about next month."

"So soon?" Hinata asked, sounding surprised.

"Don't worry," Gaara spoke, giving Hinata a smile, "Temari's training is elite. With her help, Sakura will be set for battles in no time."

I grinned in excitement. After the fact, Temari and Gaara had to leave. She said that she needed to file the paperwork to officially have me signed into the team and get me a uniform for the squad. Gaara naturally tagged along with her. With them gone, we were left with Ino and Naruto. They admitted to not having lunch yet and asked if we wanted to tag along.

"Well we actually just ate," I said with a meek smile, "If we would have known we'd run into you, we would have held off to eat with you guys."

"Aw," Naruto deflated as Ino gave us a smile and said, "No worries, we can always see each other at dinner."

"Actually, Sakura and I already unpacked and everything already," Hinata chimed with a smile, "if she doesn't mind, we can still keep you company."

When Ino glanced at me with a questioning eyebrow, I grinned and said, "Hell yeah, we would end up just sitting in our room alone anyway."

"Great!" Naruto shouted, wrapping his arm around with smile, "first rule of amazing team work is getting to know one another!"

"Honestly, can you talk about something other than Lodus for two seconds?" Ino asked with a roll of her eyes, falling into step as we all made our way to the cafeteria.

"Sakura was the same way," Hinata informed with a small laugh, "As soon as we ate lunch she wanted to find a team."

"Lucky you ran into us," Naruto boasted with squeeze of my shoulder, "Grade A defensives are picked up quick. Even Grade D defensives don't last long on the streets. Honestly, if you ended up talking with anyone else along the way, you would have been taken at the spot."

Looking over at the laughing blond boy, I smiled, "Well than it's good that we found you guys, and that we already knew you from the welcoming before."

"See Ino!" Naruto barked with a grin, "Greeting them as soon as they arrived turned out to be an amazing idea." Ino rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling as she admitted he was right. Laughing, Naruto turned to me and asked, "What is your favorite color?"

"Green," I replied. Naruto looked back at Hinata and she answered, "Purple."

"Mines orange!" He stated, "And Ino's is purple as well."

"Well clothing wise," Ino explained, "But other than that, I would say my favorite is yellow."

"Weird color," I teased with a smile, but she only poked back, "And green is lavish huh?"

I laughed as she smirked. We walked into the cafeteria, and thankfully it wasn't as crowded as before. It seemed they were only open for another half hour before lunch time was closed and dinner preparations started. In the emptiness, it was easy to find a table. Naruto and Ino sat on one side as me and Hinata sat on the other.

"So," I started, with a sudden thought, "I don't exactly know how Lodus works."

"Oh, it isn't very complicated," Ino stated as Naruto inhaled his food, "You see it's like a game of capture the flag."

"I heard about that," Hinata said carefully with her palm propping up her chin, "But you don't just capture the flag, right? There is something else you have to do."

"Yeah," Naruto started as he took a moment to breathe, "You see, you go against one other Legion. Each legion starts off on separate sides of the field. The field is filled with trees and two lakes on each side. The goal is to capture the enemy's flag and get it back to your base. The complicated part is doing it without losing."

"How do you lose?" I asked, leaning forward in interest.

"There are a couple of ways," Ino stepped back in as Naruto went back to eating; "One way is taking out the captain. That's an automatic game over."

"But Gaara does a very good job protecting her, it hardly ever happens," Naruto chimed as Ino continued, "The other way is taking out the other two _Lorums_- Well, it's a technicality not exactly an actual rule of winning or losing. Because, when you think about it, if the other team even touches the opposing team's _Lorums_, the _Certos _are pretty much guaranteed to lose focus and change course to save them."

I nodded, "Makes sense."

"Is there a way to stop that from happening if we do end up being caught?" Hinata asked beside me, also getting interested.

"Well," Ino started, leaning back in her chair as she thought carefully, "It's hard to say. The only way to keep a _Certo_ from going ballistic about being touched is releasing their Ki. Then again, if you release their Ki, they are vulnerable for attack, which leads to another way of winning."

"If all _Certos _are taken out with opposing forces still standing, the team loses. Without _Certos_ there is no way to fight against the enemy team, leaving you completely dead in the water, pretty much. No way to move forward or backwards. It's an instant game over," Naruto explained with a sip of his drink.

"Besides that, the only way to officially win is to have your flag and the enemy flag back at base. If the other team manages to take our flag while we took theirs, it's a stalemate until one of us manages to get the home flag back to win the game," Ino said with a huff and a cross of her arms, "Honestly; competitions are pretty much an all-day afar. Still, one game is maxed to an hour and a half, which is not very long when in Lodus."

"There are rules of no killing and no major injuring in the games," Naruto said as he pushed his plate aside, already finished with his food, "But that doesn't stop the teams from receiving some wounds and damages in each game. It's tough and brutal, but a lot of fun."

Leaning back, I glanced at Hinata and asked, "So, what do you think? Sounds like fun to you?"

Hinata gave me a small smile, "As long as you want to do it, I'm up for it. I just wish I knew how I could help in the games."

"We will find it out tomorrow," Ino assured with a smile, "Training is every day after school. So it won't be too long until we are finally getting to see each other's strengths and weakness."

"Sounds great," I grinned with a glance at Naruto, "And I can't wait to see what you are made of."

He laughed, "Yeah, well I wanna see what you got in that body of yours too. You seem powerful."

"Can you tell by smell?" I asked with a small smile.

"Yeah actually I can," He said with a grin, "Only a few other have the ability. I know this one guy, his name is Kiba, he has an amazing nose when it comes to scent and Ki. He's a bitch to fight against in competitions."

"Ah well, I can see your Ki." I informed, watching him perk at the information, when he asked if I was serious, I grinned and nodded, "Yeah. Are there a lot of people who can do that?"

"Not many," Ino answered with a smile, "Most people can just feel it, you know the shift and change in the air. It's pretty rare to find _Certos_ who can sense Ki by smell or sight. There are some who can tell by touch, which I don't completely understand how that works. Oh, and there's a very very FEW who can tell by sound. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it's like a different hum to them. I think that's the coolest one."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty interesting," Hinata nodded.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto interrupted with an excited bounce, "Tell me what my ki looks like!"

I laughed and tried to explain, "It's red, but right now it's just little bubbles floating around."

He deflated at the description, "Seriously?"

Laughing again, I nodded, "Yeah, but it's like theses cool shades of red, all filled with Ki and energy. I feel like if one pops, a burst of power would suddenly explode. I can only imagine how it is when you are in _Mortem._"

He seemed happier about that description.

"Well, Naruto and I have to get going," Ino sighed as she stood up, "We have some homework due tomorrow that we would much rather have done before dinner, isn't that right Naruto?"

He only huffed as he stood up as well, "Yeah yeah yeah. It was great having lunch with you guys. We'll see you for dinner tonight, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded, standing up as well, "Just knock on our door before you head out and we can go together."

"Great," Ino said brightly, "See you later."

"Bye," I waved and watched them leave as Hinata stood up besides me.

* * *

**Next chapter will include dinner and first day of training! Exciting!**

**Review, tell me what you think, all that jazz.**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N - **Hey! Here ya gooo. I'm having a lot of fun with this story. I should look into making it a serious piece of work on my end. Until then.

This is allll for my enjoyment.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto**

* * *

"What you must understand is that Lorums are regular beings," My fourth period teacher explained as he walked the isle, "They have no special power or abilities besides those talents that they were birthed with; Like, a knack for math or a special affinity for music- Which leaves them completely vulnerable in Lodus unless they acquire a skill."

I listened with my arms crossed on the desk in front of me. This class was so interesting I ended up raising my hand for a question which, if you asked Hinata, never happens. The class was about the safety of the game Lodus though, so I wasn't too far off with my question: What do Lorums do in Lodus- the deadly Certo game.

"Now, let's see," My teacher thought with a hum. He was huge gorilla of a man; spiky blue hair with fighting gloves on. He informed us his name was Asuma, a Certo of our other teacher Kurenai who taught nature appreciation, "Have you found yourself a Legion already Sakura? I know you just got in, but new Certos go fast."

I was a bit embarrassed he called me out directly in class. With a shifting glance around at my class mates, I smiled meekly and mumbled, "Oh, yeah. Uh, legion 7 picked me up just yesterday."

"That's good," He nodded in encouragement with the cross of his arms, "Mind telling us your type so I can give an example about the game Lodus?"

Ugh, maybe it was a mistake to ask a question. Turning to Hinata, who sat beside me, she gave me an encouraging smile which gave me the small strength to answer, "I am a grade A defense Certo with natural ability to control Ki flow. My Lorum is right next to me." I turned towards her with a small smile.

The class murmured around, amazed. Some even cursed silently that I was already taken. It seemed quite a few teams are pretty desperate for a defense Certo.

"Impressive," Asuma commented as he turned around to the rest of the class, "Now, what it means to be a grade A defense is that Sakura here retains a lot of her thoughts and brain function while in Mortem. The reason this is deadly is because while most Certos swing their Ki wildly like a beast and have no real motions but completely offense and destroying the enemy- Sakura here can control herself and think a bit more rationally. Believe it or not folks, it is possible for a Certo in Mortem to drain their Ki completely. With training, everyone can control the output, but Sakura will have an easier time controlling it without very much training at all."

Twisting to turn down another isle, he continued, "Now, before we go any further, we must understand that there are stages of Mortem." He sighed as he glanced at the time, "Damn, I'm getting off topic. But Sakura your question is such a good one." I gave him a meek smile, "Now the stages of Mortem are like levels of sanity. It sounds scary, but don't worry, it isn't as bad as it seems. A Certo can gather their Ki while still retaining themselves. Basically, they can gather Ki without going into full Mortem. Honestly, Mortem is a stage strictly used to protecting Lorums, but of course it can be activated at any giving time."

With a huff, he turned to me and scratched his head with a grin, "Now Sakura over here has her Lorum right next to her, very common. It's because new students lose their cool if they don't know the status of their Lorum. Same goes for any Certo. The moment they feel their Lorum is in danger, they lose it completely. But there are ways to be effective offensively without going full ballistic mode."

He turned and went to the board, grabbing chalk as he drew a terrible human body, "Don't laugh you fools, I'd like to see you try," He grumbled as he finished up, grabbing a different color piece of chalk to represent Ki, "Ki is just natural energy people are born with, but Certos have the ability to reach and use this energy. Now, you can still gather this energy and use it to move faster, punch stronger, jump longer! Mortem is used so your strong offense becomes a defense for Lorums, but in turn you lose your thoughts except for some people- like Sakura- which gives her the benefit of having a strong offense with thoughts of defense. Impressive." He noted again with a nod towards me.

Crossing his arms, he drawled, "Now, like I said, a Certo can still gather energy in a fight without going in Mortem, honestly it's the only thing that keeps the game Lodus effective without just a constant full out war of Certo on Certo. The levels of Mortem pretty much are based on how much you can retain your rational thoughts. I would like to think of it as three stages all together, but it could be argued as more if you do small steps instead of large jumps. Remember that, I'll ask you about it next class."

Huffing, Asuma looked back at me and smiled, "Now, back to your question. A Lorum has no powers at all, but with training they are deadly. I believe in your legion you have a Lorum named Ino?"

I perked at the name, and when he waited for an answer, I nodded eagerly. Chuckling, he addressed the rest of the class, "Ino Yamanaka, I'm sure you have heard of the name. That girl is a force, a deadly one, and yet she has no Ki flow to use- just a natural ability to obscure the enemy," Turning back to me, he informed, "Out of 50 games, that girl has effectively gathered at least one Lorum about 40 times- that's just a rough ratio. If she isn't nabbing the enemy teams Lorum to force Certos in Mortem and lose their objective of capturing the flag, she is somehow hacking into the enemy teams communication network."

I blinked, pretty surprised that the smiling blond was something so deadly. Hinata spoke up from besides me, "So we get communications in game? And do Lorums travel with no gear like Certos?"

"Yes there is communication- and no, Lorums get to travel with gear it is only Certos that travel with nothing but their Ki." Asuma answered while glancing at Hinata, "Now this is where talent comes in. I'm not sure if Ino takes a weapon, but I know your captain is very good with dual swords. You can tell she has either practiced with them while she was young or just has a knack for them, but her double swords are very deadly in fights. Of course they don't hurt the players, but she still takes them out."

"Some people use numb chucks," He drawled as he walked about, "Some have scythes. It's honestly up to the Lorum what they would like to travel with. Some use nothing but throwing weapons, others use arrows: All of it is a part of finding what a Lorum as a knack for."

Before he can go any further, the bell rang. Glancing at the clock, he informed, "Welp that's it guys. See you tomorrow, and remember what I said earlier about stages! I'm serious, I'm going to ask about it! Oh and Sakura" I walked over to see what he wanted, Hinata beside me as I came over.

He gave me a smile and went to his desk, pulling out these two knuckle knives from a drawer, "I just wanted to give you a tip, that's all." I stared in wonder as he titled the knives back and forth before putting them on. Then, with a quick flex of his arms, a burst of energy came out of them. His Ki was blue as it slithered and shot out through the blades. It even roared with wind as some papers started to pick up.

"See, Ki control allows you do things like this if you have the ability to project your Ki." He explained, releasing his Ki after a moment, "This can happen with any weapon, just the short ones are easier to maintain and control. Still, if it isn't too long of a sword, you could possibly do the same thing."

I looked up at him as he smiled, ruffling my hair, "I know you probably don't know if you can thrust out your Ki yet, but your ability sounds a lot like mine. I was just making sure I give you something to try when you are at practice. Of course you can't take weapons out with you in Lodus cuz you are a Certo, but it's still a nice ability to have. Life isn't always a game, so be ready for it."

"Thanks Asuma!" I said while feeling really excited about the possibility of being able to do something that cool.

"Nah problem, and Hinata," He turned, giving her a small smile, "I'm sure you don't know what you could do to help out yet, but if I may- Just by the looks of you in class and knowing your team, I would like to say that maybe you would like to try the bow."

She blinked, but Asuma only smiled, "It's delicate and requires patience. And you know, if strung and pulled right, has a force that would match any Certos Ki. Plus your team is in dire need of some long range attacks: ask Temari about it."

"Oh," she mumbled with a small blush, "Ok, thanks."

"I think if you guys run out of here now, you won't be late for your next class. If you end up being late though, just have them call me."

"Thanks again!" I said as we walked out. Looking over at Hinata, I grinned, "The bow and arrow sounds awesome for you. I think that could be your thing."

She gave me a small smile, "Well, yeah I think I could get into it with some practice. Mom always wanted me to try archery."

Hinata only ever called mother 'mom' when we were away from home. With a sudden thought as we walked down the hall, I suggested, "We should probably call home and let them know how we are doing. Even though it's only been a day, I'm sure they would like to hear from us."

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing," Hinata mumbled as we turned down a hall.

We were heading towards our next class, which was just a regular literature one. In order to get to it though, we had to take two flights of stairs down and go into hall D. This place was honestly a huge castle and students bustled all over the place. It was a bit crowded, and I had to dodge a few people with some apologies. But just as I narrowly missed someone, I ended up slamming against someone else.

"Hey, what the hell?" Shouted the girl I bumped into, her head phones that were on her ears fell to the ground in the process. The skull cap she was wearing managed to stay on her head, but it shifted a little.

Picking them up for her, I quickly apologized, "I'm sorry. I was trying to move past someone and I ended up hitting you instead."

She snatched her headphones with a glare, fixing her cap as she snapped, "Well next time pay a little more attention assho-" She stopped midsentence as her eyes widened, "Whoa there, who the hell are you?"

"Uh…" I shifted, my eyebrows scrunching at her sudden mood change. I glanced at Hinata who stood beside me with a frown before answering, "Sakura Haruno. I just came in yesterday."

"Yeah you are definitely new!" The girl gushed excitedly with a bounce, "Have you been recruited yet? Your power is incredible! I can hear it raging over all the others."

I blinked, "Hear…?"

"Oh," she shook her head with a smile, "Sorry. I'm Tayuya. I know it sounds weird, but I can sense Ki flow by sound," She held her headphones up with a meek smile; "It's why I carry these around. I have yet to successfully control my sensing so right now it's pretty hard not to scream at you over everyone else's Ki in my ears."

"We heard there was someone with that rare type of sense," Hinata informed with a smile, "That's pretty interesting."

"Totally not as great as you think," Tayuya replied with a huff, "Honestly it gives me a headache."

"It's hard to turn mine off too," I offered with a sympathetic smile, "I can sense Ki by sight, so you can imagine the strain it puts on my eyes."

"Sweet!" The red head gushed as she perked with the information, "How does mine look?"

"Um…" I started, giving her Ki a look over. Slowly, I tried to explain what I was seeing, "Your Ki is actually orange, well a mixture of red and yellow. It's hard to describe, but…" I stared with a squint of my eyes, "Well, it isn't something I can exactly see. It's like… the air around you vibrates as specks of yellow and red ki float around you… It… looks like music to be honest."

"Whoa," she stumbled with a sudden grin, "That's pretty amazing! Your sight of Ki is like a basic description of what my power is. I completely use vibrations in the air to thrust my ki out." She turned and dug into her bag until she pulled out a pretty worn out flute, "I usually use this to help, cuz' it's easier- But I can snap and even yell to project it. I pretty much use sound to fight with."

"That's an amazing ability," Hinata complemented, causing Tayuya to grin.

"Well, I have been recruited already," I informed with a smile, "and I don't exactly know what I can do yet. But yeah, your Ki power is pretty cool."

She bounced at the second complement, "Thanks! That sucks about you already being taken. The sound of your Ki is raging! It's like an electric guitar!"

I laughed at the description, but in the middle of our speaking, the warning bell rang.

"Aw fuck," She mumbled with a wary glance, "Guess we better get moving. Maybe I will see you at dinner?"

"Yeah!" I nodded, "See you around."

"Bye!"

Hinata waved after her as she left.

"A sound Ki user?" I mumbled to Hinata with a grin as we started to walk, "That is pretty epic."

"You will find what you are good at soon enough," Hinata murmured back with a smile, "I'm sure you are pretty special too."

X

"It's good you guys got here early," Naruto drawled as we sat in the locker room, waiting for Temari to show, "Our captain hate when we are late, even if she is."

I laughed as Ino pressed, "So yeah, make sure you guys are on time. She honestly turns into a raging bitch if we are ever late."

"Noted," Hinata assured with a smile, "Hyuga's are never late, so we should be fine."

"You know, I was wondering about that," Ino started with a turn to Hinata, "You are Hyuga from the famous house up north?" She nodded silently. "Wow, that's pretty amazing. How did you end up coming all the way here? There is a school only an hour away from you guys."

"My father wanted us in the best Certo school," I explained with a sheepish smile, "So we ended up here. It's surprising you know our family name though. I figured we would be ghost here."

Ino blinked and turned to me with a confused look, "You are a Hyuga?"

I nodded curiously, "Yeah… well adopted, but still apart of it."

"Oh," She gasped in return, finally understanding. With an apologetic smile, she explained, "I'm sorry. It's just that I know Hyuga are known for their fair dark blue hair, so when I saw yours I kind of… got thrown off."

"It's fine," I assured with a smile towards Hinata, "We usually get it all the time. No one thinks I'm her sister, just some close best friend or something. Either description is right."

"You know, Temari is from a pretty rich family as well," Naruto piped in from the bench he was laying back on, "Some famous house out in the eastern desert."

Just as he finished, Temari had strolled in. Her school uniform was already off and she was wearing her Lorum battle gear. Pressing her fists at her hips, she grinned and stated, "Alright maggots, ready to have our first official training as a team?"

Naruto hopped up with a fist pump, "Hell yeah boss, let's do it."

We were all dressed in our battle suits. Hinata may have been forced to wear a skirt all day, but her battle gear made me jealous. It was a nice sleek black material with straps at the back and at the hips to hold your weapon and any other thing you carried. She looked pretty bad ass with her boots and the tightly strapped knife at her right thigh.

Me, on the other hand, pretty much had the same thing without the straps or weapons. Instead, I just got the communication piece in my ear that was connected to my team. As we walked into the field, we turned all of them on.

"Testing," Temari announced in my ear, "Hearing me clear?"

"Yeah," I mumbled ahead, not sure where exactly I was supposed to be talking, "You can hear me fine too?"

"Crystal," Temari replied, "What about you guys? Good?"

"Yup." Naruto answered, already moving to one side of the felid. We were practicing on this huge gym that was a building but had dirt, grass, and trees inside of it. Temari said it was the sake of doing private training so other teams couldn't figure out what strategy we were going for.

"Roger." Ino answered right after Naruto, moving with him through the field."

"All clear hear, Temari." Gaara answered. I turned and saw him moving with Temari, which was further from me to the left.

"And I'm all ready to go," Hinata answered with the final check.

"Great," Temari said in confidence, "Now, today isn't really about strategy, but about Sakura and Hinata finding their skill. By the end of tonight's training, we will know their ins and outs. Ino, I'm going to need you to focus on Sakura, watch how she moves."

"Got it." Ino answered.

I shifted uncomfortably, glancing towards the way Ino had gone. She was now in a tree, sitting with a smile on her face. She wiggled her fingers at me; I'm guessing knowing that I can see her with my heightened senses, then the communication in my ear buzzed in with her teasing, "Don't worry, I'm sure you won't screw up too much."

I chuckled with another glance over to her. Temari started talking again, "I will be watching Hinata. I know you want to try the bow Hinata, honestly it's a great idea and I totally agree. Right now though, we need to test how you would act if you were under pressure."

"It's ok," Hinata replied, "I understand."

"Great," Temari sighed out, "On my count Naruto. Do exactly as we discussed."

"Roger." He stated in a cold flat voice.

I stiffened at the tone. With a frown, I glanced around worriedly and automatically started to bend into a defensive stance, "What exactly do you guys plan on doing?"

"Now Naruto!" Temari yelled, and after that communications turned static before cutting off.

"What the hell!" Suddenly growing pissed, I whirled to Hinata and yelled, "Run!"

"Be careful!" She yelled to me before turning and sprinting as fast as she could, not asking any questions on why I had commanded her to run. I was grateful she automatically trusted me, and with Ki churning inside of me, my energy started to spike.

From the distance, I saw Naruto coming at top speed, his red bubbling Ki forming some sort of shape around him as he sprinted. With a grit of my teeth, I warned with a yell, "Don't fucking touch her Naruto, or I will kill you."

"All part of orders, Sakrua!" He called back, his voice also rough and harsh.

"Not good enough!" I shouted, suddenly bursting with speed towards him. The Ki gathered at my legs without thought, giving me blinding speed. I ended up right in front of him in two seconds flat. He didn't seem surprised at the time it took me to reach him, but he did seem surprised when he threw a hard slash at my chest and nothing happened.

"-built up at the- she has ultimate defense." The communication in my ear went in and out. It was Ino's voice and she sounded in awe.

"Good try!" I growled, gripping his wrist and thrusting him up, moving to slam him against the ground.

"GAARA!" Temari shouted.

"ON IT! ARRRRAGHHHH!" A gathering of Ki spiked from behind me, shooting into the air. Seconds later, I was being knocked back with Naruto out of my hands.

It didn't matter. Twisting in the air, I gained my ground with my shoes digging into the earth. Sliding to a stop, it took only a second to recover and burst towards the two. In the midst of my running, my Ki spiked again, now slowly pooling out of my body- surrounding me in this fire shaped green energy around me.

"Attack her! See if you can make her take damage!" Temari commanded in my ear. Maybe they didn't know communications on my end came back up.

Naruto fox beast form Ki sprinted towards me while Gaara sat back and thrust two sharp spears of Ki at me. The spears reached me before Naruto, forcing me to duck and jump over them, but it put me off footing. Just as I hit the ground, Naruto attacked with another hard slash, this time his bubbling Ki extending its reach and hitting me right in the ribs.

Well, it would have hit me in the ribs if my ki energy didn't stop it from doing anything. With a bursting shout, I turned and swung my arm back, my Ki gathering to my hand as I aimed to punch him.

"Back out, now! That's going to hurt!" Ino yelled frantically.

"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as my fist swung for him, giving him no time to dodge.

Right before I could make contact, he was taken by Gaara's Ki, which flung him out of the way. My fist instead hit a tree that was next to us. It wheezed in pain before seconds passed and it exploded completely. Bark flew and darted in every direction as the tree cracked and slowly fell backwards.

"What the fuck…" Naruto huffed into the commination, possibly watching the huge beast of a tree fall towards the ground, "That could have been me."

"This is too deadly of a game to play with her, Temari," Gaara warned calmly, "She is too new to know the difference of taking a Lorum in game and real life trying to hurt her other half. We should stop while we are ahead."

"Imagine if you had honestly touched Hinata," Ino mumbled, the communication going staticy now, "Full Mortem mode with her would be like fighting a monster."

"Sakura," Temari cut in, "Can you hear us? It's over, you can calm down now."

My Ki slowly started to fall back into my body, my anger slowly simmering. With an exhausted little breath, I stumbled to a nearby tree and breathed, "Sorry guys, I just got really pissed."

"It was the point of the exercise," Temari assured.

"Sakura, are you ok?" Hinata asked worriedly.

I smiled weakly, "Yeah, just a bit tired."

"It looks like that defense of hers takes a lot out of her," Gaara commented as I stumbled back to the middle, where it looked like everyone was meeting, "but it's really useful. If we can get her to control it, to only use it in time of need, or just have spurts of energy block attacks where it's happening for that spit second- she will be a force no one could touch and her Ki would last longer."

Eventually, I reached the team. Hinata was the first to come up to me, her hands coming to my shoulder as she looked at me intensely. I gave another weak smile and assured I was ok, but that didn't ease her at all. Instead, she ended up taking my hand and pulling me back slowly to the group. Even when we got there, she didn't let go and her shoulder was pressed against my arm.

Beside me, Ino watched. Her eyes fell down to our linked hands, but she looked away when her vision flicked back up only to be caught my mine. I watched her interestingly as Temari spoke, "So it looks like you are honestly god tier defense."

I turned to Temari and chuckled as she gushed, "Your Ki literally pooled and formed a barrier outside of your body! You couldn't be touched, and that was when we could get a decent hit on you! I'm sure you didn't notice, but your movements were fast! It probably looked regular to you, but honestly you were darting everywhere! The two hits we managed to land were nothing!"

"One demon slash to the chest and one demon ki spike to your ribs," Naruto mumbled with a shake of his head and the cross of his arms, "Both are pretty hard hits if any damage was taken. If it was anyone else, they would have been on their ass hurt beyond all fuck. But you pretty much flicked me off and counter attacked me so hard that I was almost seriously injured if Gaara hadn't saved me. Twice."

"Because you were moving so much, it was hard to land my things too," Gaara spoke with a sigh, "I was throwing spikes, but at the same time I was throwing everything else at you. My Ki couldn't even touch you."

"All I saw were your spikes," I mumbled, frowning when I tried to think if I saw anything else.

"You were dodging them subconsciously," Ino informed with a cross of her arms, "Your focus was Naruto when Gaara threw his spikes- so when you dodged that, you also dodged three other attack WHILE looking at Naruto to attack. Like Temari said, you are god tier defense."

There was a squeeze of my fingers, "I told you that you'd be special," Hinata mumbled with a small smile when I looked at her.

"Uh," Naruto started, a small blush on his cheek as he admitted, "Communications are still up…we all just heard what you said."

I blinked, and with widened eyes I turned and watched Hinata go beet red. Roaring with laughter after her, I followed as she stormed off to the weapons part of the field.

Practice was easy going after that. Hinata needed practice with the bow, but other than that the team pretty much talked the rest of the time- all through communications. Ino sat in trees the whole time, jumping from one to the other with ease as she watched Nartuo gather Ki and fight against fake dummies that popped out of the ground. Temari looked to be working on some book with a map of the field as Gaara target practiced his Ki spikes on trees.

To entertain myself, I gathered Ki in my legs and went into speed frenzy. At some points I would jump and kick against a tree, allowing me to fly into the air but my landings were always rough. I noted that would probably be something I need to work more on. Other than that, an hour and a half passed pretty quickly and we were off to shower before dinner.

The first day of school was over.

* * *

**Next chapter is going to be an Ino and Sakura chapter. Yay, finally. Get ready for it.**

**Review, tell me what you think. :D**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N - **Here we go! Chapter 8, hope ya like it!

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto**

* * *

Three trainings through, and I was already starting to notice improvements on my end. The thought of Hinata getting touched didn't set me off as bad anymore, not with my team. It has only been a short time I've known them, but I was already developing a trust for them. Deep down, with each exercise we did together, I would repeat to myself that they would never hurt her- it's something I honestly knew. So, when it came time to punch Naruto- a couple of times when he had gotten caught- I would stop myself; Mid punch, Ki roaring with my fist, I would stop inches away, but afterwards I would collapse on the ground.

I'm not sure what this was about, but I hadn't gotten too worried about it to ask Asuma yet. Temari explained that since I'm never really in full Mortem, I have more control over my actions. She guessed that since I knew this was just a practice and since we've been doing practices so much, my mind understands the line of real danger and something that is intend to get me better.

Hinata wasn't convinced with the answer, it suddenly became a topic I was dreading to pop up. She was worried, terribly so, that this might be some type of effect of over doing it. Her reasoning made sense: She told me that if I was constantly turning my Ki on and off every day but I had only JUST got my powers a week ago, what type of effect could that have on my body?

Ino, and even Gaara, agreed that Hinata could be right. Last training we had together, Gaara pulled me aside to talk.

"_Listen," Gaara started with a cross of his arm and a small smile, "I know Naruto is an idiot, but his Ki literally just lunges him forward for attacks. He isn't like you, his strong offense just turns into a STRONGER offense for his Lorum- while you, on the other hand, have your strong offense turn DEFENSE for Hinata. You have control, but maybe a bit too much."_

_I gave him a meek smile and admitted, "During trainings, when I'm about to hit him, I get scared I might hurt him so I suddenly release my Ki. It's not a control thing either, it's like my body automatically does it."_

"_Now that is understandable," He nodded as he glanced to the rest of the team, Naruto still fighting against the pop-up dummies from the ground again, "But my sand ki is pretty fast. If we ever have a point where Naruto is in danger, I will get to him in time."_

_Sighing, I shifted and glanced up with a mumble, "Can you promise me that Gaara? I feel like unless I know you can get him out of the way, I won't be able to train effectively anymore."_

_His hand placed on my shoulder, and with a confident nod with his smile gone, he said, "I promise to my Lorum, that Naruto will be safe while we are practicing with you."_

A smile slipped my lips as I thought of the conversation and the confident look on his face. Just by his words, I almost completely believed him. It was in today's training when I would give my full trust to the guy.

"What are you smiling about loser? Are you in love?" I blinked and noticed a grinning red head coming up to me. With a grin, I stated, "Nope, just thinking about beating your ass in Lodus when I finally get to join."

Tayuya pulled off her headphones, but she still heard me. With a laugh, she nudged me, "Tough bark with no bite there punk."

"Hello to you too Tayuya," Hinata greeted with a small smile.

"Now she I like," the red head stated with a grin. Since Hinata was walking on the right side of me, and Tayuya was on my left, she had to peak forward to get a good look at Hinata, "Hey there, how's classes going?"

"Boring," Hinata sighed out, "But soon I'll be taking new ones. They are going to separate our schedule next week."

"Damn so soon," Tayuya frowned in response, "That sucks girl, I'm sorry to hear it."

"I'm not happy about it," I huffed, but admitted, "But she has to start taking actual classes or there will be no point of schooling here. Still, if we honestly wanted to, we could ask dad to pull strings."

The suggestion didn't appeal to Hinata much. She only shrugged, "It's up to you. I think I will be fine."

I deflated as Tayuya laughed, "Ha! Tough break! Your Lorum won't even miss you."

"Oh," Hinata blinked before looking over and assuring, "No that wasn't what I meant."

I laughed and shook my head. As we went down the stairs- heading for lunch- Tayuya followed. We had gotten into a schedule of seeing each other at a certain time in the hall. During that time, we found out we both ate lunch around then and decided to eat together. It was nice, besides my team, I hardly talked to anyone else.

"So how is Ino doing?" Tayuya asked as she grabbed her meal.

It was a question that came up a lot. I hadn't quite figured out what their relationship was, "She's good with Naruto around. You can tell she gets a bit wary when he isn't, when you think it should be the other way around- you know, Naruto worried and her totally fine."

"That's because the idiot doesn't know how to stay out of trouble," Tayuya replied with a small laugh, "It's good she's doing well."

"How exactly do you know Ino?" Hinata asked as we walked towards a free table.

"Oh, we were on the same squad once," Tayuya answered while sitting down. With a frown, she looked around and asked, "Hey you mind if I put on my headphones. It's loud as a bitch in here, but I will still be able to hear you."

I gave her a soft smile. When I thought about it now, after a couple of days of knowing her, the ability to hear Ki must be incredibly straining on her ears. It was amazing she could think with her other senses raging at its peak.

"What happened?" Hinata pressed as Tayuya put on her headphones, "Did you guys have to disperse?"

"Uh, nope," she answered with a small laugh, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment, "Got an offer for another legion, so I took it. It happens all the time, but I feel bad for leaving."

"Is the other team better?" I asked while scooping up some of my mashed potatoes. Even being with legion 7 for the mere 3 trainings I've gotten through, I knew I would never switch. Not because of skill level, just because I appreciated them and devolved a form of trust.

"In some ways," Tayuya answered with a shrug, but then a grin split her face as she admitted, "Nothing like training with Temari though. I doubt anyone can be as hard core as her."

"She is tough," Hinata huffed while I laughed, knowing it was true. Training with Temari was like doing a nonstop sprint up a never ending hill, "It gets us better though."

"That's training for ya," Tayuya nodded before standing up with a smile, "Anyway guys, I'm heading out early. This Lorum of mine will have a fit if I don't meet her at the correct time."

"We haven't met her yet," I perked in realization.

Her red hair shifted further down her shoulder as she nodded, "Our schedules split a long time ago. I doubt you'll ever see her- But when you do, I'll be sure to introduce you properly. She already knows you guys by name, just not by face."

"You talk about us?" Hinata asked with a small smile.

I glanced at Tayuya for the response, a teasing smirk already slipping my lips. She huffed while waving us off, "It's because you guys are the competition."

"Yeah, for next month!" I sneered with a grin, "You totally like us and we are total friends! You friended us so hard you tell your Lorum about us!"

"Shut the fuck up Sakura," Tayuya glared before turning away, "See you dorks later."

"I thought she liked me," Hinata drawled with a small pout as Tayuya walked away.

"She does," I assured with a smile, "She is just completely embarrassed we caught her being friends with us."

X

Hinata and I entered the training room to see everyone already there. Blinking, I walked up and greeted, which they all turned towards me in response. My eyes wandered to all their faces, eventually I landed myself right in front of Temari, who had her arms crossed with a very hard look on her face.

"Uh…" I started, taking a glance at Hinata before continuing, "Yes…ma'am?"

"We have to run a mandatory exercise today," Temari's voice was flat and commanding. With an uncomfortable shift, I nodded so she could continue, "We will be separating you and Hinata for one hour."

My heart dropped, "What?" I stumbled, my eyebrows scrunching in anger after a moment, "Hell fucking no she isn't leaving my sight! I don't give a fuck what you say, Captain." The word Captain was spat out with distaste.

"Sakura calm down," Hinata soothed with a touch to my arm, "Listen to what she has to say."

The emotions that were churning inside of me slowly simmered down. With a breath, I glared at the lockers as Temari spoke, "It's something each of us had to do every so often. It's to help you get used to not having your Lorum in sight, because Sakura in game you won't have your eyes on her all the time."

"The hell I won't," I snapped with a growl, "She will be my main concern."

"No, capturing the flag is your main concern," It wasn't Temari who was speaking now, but Gaara. He came appeared beside Temari with a soft smile, "It's because she won't be your main concern that we have to do this. It's an exercise that allows you to understand that you don't need to be next or in sight of your Lorum at all times to make sure she is safe. There are going to be times where she can't be right next to you, for random reasons. You need to learn to be ok with that."

"Gaara is right, Sakura," Ino was speaking up this time around. Her blue eyes were watching from the side lines at how pissed I was becoming. A glance towards her made my mood flatter, if only just a tad. I knew I was making a scene, but I couldn't help the strong emotions pushing inside of me, "In the games she won't be in sight because you'll be crossing into enemy lines like the first soldiers into war. Lodus isn't about protecting Lorums, it's about capturing the enemy's flag."

"This exercise is going to help you deal with not being able to see her," Temari continued in a softer tone, "I know it's going to be tough, but trust me it needs to be done or you will never be able to deal with it. This isn't us bullying you or anything."

Huffing, I shifted and looked back at Hinata. She was giving me a smile of encouragement as I took in what my team was saying. Her eyes watched mine for a moment, waiting. Then, with another breath, I turned to Temari and mumbled, "Just an hour right? Even now, thinking of leaving her side makes me want to punch the nearest living being… which would be Naruto."

"Whoa there," Naruto piped up from the very back, "I'm the FURTHEST away from you."

"My fist is attracted to your face dorklord," I teased in response, a small smile slipping to my lips. Ino laughed as Naruto flipped me off. I looked back at Temari and pressed gently, "Just an hour, right Captain? I couldn't bear any longer than that."

"That's right maggot," Temari affirmed with the rustle of my hair, "Naruto you take Hinata to the west wing of the Academy. Ino, you take Sakura to the east. Meet back here in a full hour."

I glanced at Ino, who gave me a comforting smile. As we were walking away, Temari called, "I'd be wary of the time if I were you Naruto. And you better not pull anything with Hinata, seeing as Sakura will kill you."

The thought of him passing one over on Hinata flared a small burst of rage. Whirling around, I bared my teeth with a low growl settling right at my chest. Naruto cringed at the look and rushed, "What the fuck Temari, of course not!"

I continued to glare until I felt a small touch at my arm. Easing a little bit, I turned to Ino to see her smiling again, "Hey no worries; Naruto isn't the type of guy to do that."

Sighing, I allowed her to lead the way as I responded, "Sorry. Just-" With the thought of Hinata flashing to mind, I looked over my shoulder to watch her leaving with Naruto. My chest tightened with each passing distance between us.

"Just what?"

Blinking, I turned back and mumbled, "Just knowing that she isn't with me tears me up inside."

"It's a normal feeling," Ino comforted gently as we continued to walk, "I think for Naruto it was worse."

Shifting and flexing my hand into a fist while pressing against my fingers, I attempted to get lost in the small talk Ino was creating, "Why do you think that?"

"He is very overprotective," She explained as we walked down the side walk. There were students around, but not that many. Most seemed to be heading to their dorms, "The moment he found out that I was his Lorum, he didn't leave my side for a week. Every person who came near me he growled at, and if I was unhappy about something, he was ready to fight someone."

A small chuckle escaped me, something she noticed. With a smile she turned her gaze to me and continued, "It wasn't until these exercises with Temari that I was able to get him to take a huge two steps back. Now days, he hardly cares if I run off, just minds when he comes to find me and can't."

"Hmm," I hummed in thought as I watched my feet move. Kicking a rock, I mumbled, "I think I could be the same way, but I have too much conscious of myself. If you think of Certo like being more animalistic, then you could say that I'm a bit more human than most Certos."

"Is that bad?" She asked quietly.

I'm not sure what it was about the tone she was taking with me, but it was soothing. Maybe it was just the nice talk, or the outside air, but I felt a lot more at ease than I thought I would have been without Hinata.

"No," I answered with a short second of thought, "It's just that I can see how I am. I get angry because I can't control my emotions as well, but when it comes time to hurting someone I hesitate."

"All the time?" She questioned from beside me.

We took a turn to a small branching side walk. With that, we continued to walk to the forest-y part of the academy. I wondered if we were headed towards the training grounds as I replied, "Yeah, I think so. I mean I haven't fought anyone else but Gaara and Naruto, but every single time I stop myself. Today in fighting I was supposed to try to not stop myself because Gaara said if something were to happen he would save Naruto. I don't know. I must be thinking too much."

"Doesn't sound like it to me," Ino replied as she wandered to a nearby tree. She lifted up her hands to play with the leaves. For a moment, I stood and watched, "It just seems like you are… more wary than other Certos. That and you've come to call us friends so of course you don't want to hurt us."

With a small twirl, she smiled at me and explained, "But thinking too much? Nah. It's in your nature to analyze things; you are grade A defense after all."

Hm, I never thought of it that way. With a nod, I slowly followed her as she continued down the side walk. In the silence she spoke up, but in a quiet tone, "You and Hinata are sisters… You seem awfully close."

The statement brought blood to my ears. A funny warm sensation at my neck and cheeks lingered as I stumbled out, "Oh, it's because we are… I'm sure we act pretty weird, but we've been together for so long that we don't even notice."

"No," she started slowly, turning to me with her blue eyes staring right into mine, "It isn't that, well I don't find it weird. It's just… I know that type of affection." With a bite of her lip she looked away. I watched her carefully as she continued, "Naruto and I used to be the same way. We were really… open with each other. We used to sleep together every night as well."

I smiled slightly as the last bit. She must have realized what she said, because her eyes grew wide as she looked back to me. I gave her an amused look as she quickly rushed, "Because he was always around, we couldn't even get him to go home."

"So, who is Naruto to you anyway?" I asked, more curious about the relationship of the two than making her squirm.

"Uh, he is a boy who lives across the street from us." Ino answered while playing with her fingers.

"Really?" I blinked, taking a step towards her, "Just a random boy, or has he lived there for a while?"

"We are childhood friends," She mumbled with her eyes sliding back up to mine, "He's been around since I was 5."

Smiling, I nodded, "Oh I see. So when he turned Certo, his duty was you…" I watched her as I took another step towards her, "Were you happy?"

A distant laugh slipped past her lips, one that sounded reminiscing. With a twirl, she turned from me and walked away. I watched her curiously, and then followed when I saw she was aiming for the nearby bench, "I was happy because he was ecstatic. His father has been telling him stories for years about Certo's. See, his parents are Lorum and Certo as well."

"The father being Certo?" I asked while sitting next to her.

"And his mother being Lorum," Ino finished with a small smile, "So when Naruto had his vision, he was so happy. They said it would skip his generation, it was usually every grandson that got the trait, but it ended up being him."

"That's pretty awesome," I grinned, feeling happy for the oversized dork, "it was probably his dream and he totally lucked out."

"Yup," she replied with a laugh. Her gaze went to the sky as she spoke, "He told me that the moment he thought I was in danger- the moment I whispered his name in plea- he lost it. I wasn't there when he went into Mortem, but I heard it was devastating."

"He must have some very deep emotions about you," I mumbled to my hand, watching my fingers with a smile as I thought of Hinata, "I wonder if it's pre-existing strong connections that causes a Certo's Lorum to be chosen, or just a random dice. I mean, my Lorum could have been my brother, but it ended being Hinata, something I'm not very surprised about… I wonder why…"

"Strong emotions, maybe," Ino drawled, "He's older than me by a year, you know?"

"You're joking," I laughed with a glance over at her, "Seriously? That goof."

She laughed as well, "Yup. So I always thought of him as a big brother."

"Nothing more?" I pressed with a teasing smile.

"And nothing less," she finished with a smirk as she stood up and started walking again, "What about you and Hinata?"

Standing up, I followed and stayed behind her, "Hinata is… special to me."

"Sounds about right, seeing as she is your Lorum," She said from ahead of me.

I rolled my eyes and agreed, "You're right. That's exactly what that means, huh?" Sighing, I pressed, "I don't know… would you think it weird if we were going out?"

She stopped mid stop to turn around. I swallowed, because I thought maybe it was overly weird and I scared her, but it wasn't the case. Her smile was teasing as her eyes twinkled. With a breath, she admitted, "Actually. No. You are adopted; it pretty much makes you very good childhood friends- like me and Naruto. It all depends on your opinion on things I guess."

I shifted uncomfortably at her remaining gaze, "I don't know, I think it's weird."

She laughed and turned back around, "Then why did you ask?"

Deep down, I didn't know why I asked. Hinata though… when I thought about her being back at my side, I felt relieved and my heart soared. For a while now, even before I became a Certo, I felt the same way. I never really thought about it until now.

Ino let the question sit there as we continued to walk. She also didn't bring it back up after new conversation started. Still, it was underlining and there.

There was a reason I asked, so what was it?

X

"Hinata!" I cried out with a grin, jogging towards her and Naruto. From the distance I saw her smile, which squeezed my heart with the sight of it. Seconds later, I had her crushed into me with my arms, "Jeez I've missed you."

"Well hello there Sakura, how are you?" Naruto grumbled before moving to pass us.

Just before he could, I grabbed his wrist. He turned back with a raised eyebrow, but I only smiled and said, "Thanks for taking care of her while I was gone."

A blush moved to his cheek. With a stumbling noise, he took his wrist away and jumbled out a response, "Idiot, it was an hour- no need to thank- oh whatever you are welcome."

With that, he was storming off to Ino. I turned back to Hinata with a grin. She smiled and asked, "How was your time with Ino?"

"Great," I replied as I took a step back, "She helped me keep my mind off things while you were away. What about you and Naruto?"

Her gaze flattered as she mumbled, "Oh it was good."

I blinked at her, and just when I was about to ask what was with the weird response, Temari had showed up. Giving me a gentle push at my shoulder, she asked, "So how was it, maggot? Did you lose your cool?"

"Nah," I grinned and pointed over to Ino as they made their way over, "She was able to keep me calm and moving."

"Great," Temari nodded, "Gaara thought it would take a bit more with you, but it looks like Ino can do the job fine."

I smiled at Ino who gave a nod at Temari. With a huff, Temari stated, "Well, that is enough for today. Tomorrow will be actual training, so be ready. Dismissed."

With a stretch, I turned back to Hinata and said excitedly, "Now for showers and dinner!"

"Excited much?" She asked as we made our way to the changing room, her tone amused.

"I'm always excited when it comes to cleanliness and food!"

Ino and Naruto were right behind us, but I was too absorbed by Hinata to bother to talk to them. The hour away from her felt like an eternity, so being with her now made me frantic. I'm not sure how to put it, but I just extremely missed her. So the next hours of us showering, going to dinner and getting in bed was spent with me being no more than two feet away from her.

Just as she was climbing into bed, pulling her covers to sleep, I asked in a meek whisper, "Is it alright if I sleep with you tonight?"

The request surprised her, but she only laughed as I avoided her eyes. With a smile, she told me it was fine, and without any other words exchanged, I climbed into her bed and snuggled in. She whispered that I was a dork, but I didn't care. I only nuzzled and held her closer while I slowly fell into dreams.

* * *

**There we go. I know, moar Ino/Sakura. Working on it. Hope you enjoyed it, tell me what you think**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N - **Yeahhh I think this will be the last one until we actually get into the games and starting to meet new people.

Until then, I hope you enjoy this!

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto**

* * *

Just another day of training with my sparring partner Naruto. Currently he was on a 5 total losing streak this evening- Something that was honestly getting under his skin.

"Damn it…" Naruto's gruff voice said through the communications. From the distance, I could see him struggling to get up. With a frown, I looked back to my hand. Flexing it, I tried to think of what I did to have him flying 50 feet away.

"Sorry Naruto," Gaara apologized over the earpiece, "You have to take some hits pal."

"This is dumb," Naruto growled in response, his voice growing deep and his sentences sounding chopped, "There is no reason I shouldn't be able to touch her."

"Tough luck," Temari cut in, "You are going against a defense Certo. Man up, of course it's going to be tough."

"Shut up!" He shouted.

My eyes jumped back to Naruto, who was now on his knees and moving to stand. With the tensing of my muscles, my senses predicted danger. Not allowing my eyes to pull away, I mumbled quietly, "Where is Ino?"

"Her and Hinata are still grabbing supplies," Temari whispered. I heard a shift in the set as Gaara came in, "I think Sakura has a right to be worried."

"You don't think he…" Temari's sentence fell silent.

Bending my knees, I prepared myself as Naruto finally got to his feet. He swayed for a moment, but not a second later did his Ki start to bubble up his body slowly. Watching the sight with the grit of my teeth, I replied, "Yeah, I think I've officially pissed him off."

"Naruto calm down!" Temari yelled through the ear piece. With the mic groaning from the stress of her voice and the high pitched level, I listened, "Damn it, do you even have your communication up?"

Just then, Naruto took something out of his ear and threw it to the ground. Frowning, I mumbled, "Not anymore he doesn't."

"What the fuck," she breathed out, obviously reaching a new stress level.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked while staring at Naruto's red bubbling Ki that was slowly consuming his body.

"You fight him until his Ki dies out," Gaara informed with a firm tone, "That or until Ino is here to release him. Do you think you can handle that?"

"I can try," I replied.

His Ki had finished forming around his body. Naruto was now soaked in red, dripping, boiling energy that formed a shape around him. Standing here, in the midst of the danger, I could see why they called him the demon fox Certo. From here he honestly looked like a… fox.

An ear-bursting roar rumbled through the air as he shouted, his Ki now raging at full power. Then, getting on all fours, I watched his red eyes lock onto me before he lunged for an attack.

"Here he comes!" Gaara warned.

"Shit he's fast," Temari gasped.

The speed he came at me with was incredible; faster than I've ever seen him go. Digging my feet into the earth, I gathered myself and my Ki, steeling myself for the force to come. Mere seconds past and Naruto was in front of me, his demon form glaring me right in the eyes. Teeth sharp and etched whiskers on his face, he roared and slashed at my chest.

The shield I managed to produce from my Ki wasn't quite strong enough. My breath was stolen right from my lungs as I heard the sound of a crack right where I was hit. I wasn't hurt, even as I slid across the dirt with my body already forming aching bruises. My ultimate shield just got hit with more force than prepared for. It didn't stop me though, if anything, I only ended up pissed.

"Shit she's hit," Temari mumbled, "I think we better find Ino."

"Wait a second," Gaara suggested in a curious tone, "It's the first time she's had a true blow dealt to her. Let her adjust, she can do this."

Grinding my teeth together, I stood up. Naruto was still on all fours, a smirk at his lips as his glowing red eyes stared at me. Glaring, a taunted, "After all the times I've whopped your ass Naruto, that's all you got?"

His smirk quickly fell. Bending even lower, a growl tumbled from his chest. I'm not sure if he lost the ability to speak when he is in Mortem, but I wasn't concerned with the curious thought. Instead, I readied myself all over again when Naruto was aiming to attack once more.

"Get ready," Gaara urged.

I didn't need his encouragement. In the seconds it took Naruto to reach me, I put my Ki on full out burn mode. The raging fire that surround me was now shooting straight into the sky, my protective flames shielding my whole body. This time when he appeared right in front of my face, aiming to kick at my ribs, I was ready for him.

A roar of my own escaped my lips as I caught his foot and flung him into the air. My eyes watched as he gained altitude with my knees already bending to get ready. A moment later I was skyrocketing in the air as well, aiming to beat the shit out of this guy. Somehow he was able to turn in the air and ready himself for me. When I reached him, he blocked my punch and attempted to target my ribs with one of his own. Slamming my elbow down to stop him, I dug into his arm and forced his body to tilt. The small shift on his end allowed me to gather Ki in my free fist and get a solid punch in the back of his shoulder.

The sheer power I put out for that single swing was enough to shoot him back down to the ground. As I slowly fell, I watched his body fall towards the ground at full speed. Just when it looked like he was going to land on his side, he managed to twist himself to land on all fours. He saved himself, but the ground around him cracked and groaned from the stress.

I kept falling, watching helplessly as his head turned towards my dropping figure. Cursing, I watched him bend his knees and arms before jumping towards me in the sky. I wasn't in a position to take a blow- even with my Ki raging around me I knew if he hit me now in midair it would hurt. His sharp teeth showed as he sped closer, and with a simple grab of my ankles I was flying in some sort of direction.

I had no sense of where was up and down. Even my keen sight could only gather that I was aiming for the trees. Shutting my eyes tight, I tried to steel myself for the landing. Instead, I ended up slamming against something much softer than expected. With a grunt, I tumbled to the ground and landed on my knees with my palms holding up my broken figure.

"Well praised Sakura finally knows how it feels to get her ass whopped," I heard the taunting sneer of Naruto from the distance, but could tell he was somewhere in front of me. His voice was rough and low. He might not have been in Mortem anymore, but the mentality hadn't escaped him yet. I knew the feeling; When I get out of Mortem I'm an asshole too.

Swallowing air, I lifted my head to glare at the blonde who was no longer in fox Ki form. Still, he walked towards me with his red ki bubbling around him, energy just waiting to be used with his eyes still glowing red. From my position I understood this was the chump change of energy he was going to use to finish me off. He must have known that after that throw I was going to need a moment to recover.

"Get your first win and now you are cocky?" I growled, moving to stand up.

"Stay down and I won't hurt you," He threatened, the Ki bubbles around him shifting and floating anxiously.

I knew if I didn't stop he would prove true to his words, but there was no way in hell I was going to let this smug little bastard beat me by a forfeit. With a soft grunt in pain, I continued to get on my feet. The amount of motivation I had left aggravated him, I could tell by the way he set his jaw with his teeth grinding together. He lifted his fist, but I stared him straight in the eye.

"Do it, dorklord," I encouraged with my lip curling with displeasure.

He narrowed his eyes and yelled as he moved to punch me.

"NARUTO RELEASE!"

The scream came from across the training gym, but it echoed around the place. Immediately Naruto's Ki depleted and fell. With no energy, his fist still came down, but it ended up landing on my shoulder and it honestly didn't hurt at all. The sudden release of his Ki was enough to weaken his thrust, to the point of nothing. With a stumbling sway, he blinked and his red glowing eyes slowly shifted and watered to the crystal blue I was used to.

The moment his eyes turned regular, his facial markings slowly disappeared. Then, like he had woken up, he seemed to recognize me for the first time. With a confused look, he whispered out weakly, "Whoa, who the hell fucked you up?"

With that he collapsed to the ground. I was able to catch him, but he was so massive we both just ended up falling. He laid on top of me as I struggled to sit up. The moment I was able to, I put my hand on his cheek and intensely stared at his features. His eyes were closed and there was a light snore in his breathing, but other than that he seemed fine. With a sigh, I realized he had only fallen asleep.

"Naruto!" Ino called as she ran over, leading the rest of the group. Hinata was close behind as Gaara and Temari followed. When they reached us, Ino went straight to Naruto's side as I slid from under him; Hinata came straight to me with her hands on my cheeks to check if I was alright; and Temari and Gaara stayed back, Temari with her arms crossed while Gaara had his hands in his pocket.

"What happened?" Hinata mumbled as she stood in front of me. She was so close that I could feel her breath tickling my chin. With a small sigh, I explained that we were fighting before things escalated, "You idiot," She breathed out in worry while pushing against my chest with a glare, "How could you put yourself into danger like that?"

"He wanted to fight Hina," I sighed with a glance to the boy still lying on the ground, "So I gave him one. He completely blanked out during it though, he didn't even know what was happening until it was over."

"You mean when he was aiming to punch you?" Hinata snapped.

I frowned and shook my head, "No, when Ino released him."

"That's it for today I guess," Temari sighed out. I glanced towards her and watched as she scratched her head with another huff, "You guys are too wild to even do anything productive. Tomorrow it will be an easy going day, maybe some break time for Sakura and Hinata for an hour or something."

"What about Naruto?" Ino whispered from the ground. She was on her knees with Naruto's head on her lap. The worry on her face was evident. I frowned as Temari replied, "Gaara should be able to move him with his Ki if he has the energy."

"I do," Gaara informed with a nod, "Where did you want to take him Ino?"

"To his dorm," She replied in a soft tone, still looking down at the blonde in her lap, "He isn't hurt, just wasted a lot of his energy."

"Alright," Gaara replied, and a moment later his Ki was pouring around him. I watched, amazed at how he could just manipulate his energy in such a way. With a simple flick of his wrist, his Ki tumbled and formed, gently picking up Naruto's body.

Silently we all watched as Naruto floated in the air and slowly made his way with Gaara to the exit. Ino stood up and moved to follow, but I stopped her with the catch of her wrist. Frowning, I said sincerely, "I'm sorry about this. I should have found a better way to deal with him."

"He's honestly ok," Ino murmured in reply as she gave me a weak smile while carefully taking her wrist away, "And usually when he gets like that there is only one way to deal with him, and that's fighting. I'm just glad it was you and not someone else. I could tell you held back."

I blinked at her words, but didn't get a chance to say anything more. She was walking away and Temari had already left to pick up our mess. In the end, it was only me and Hinata standing there in silence. After a moment, she was the first to speak as she turned to me, "Did you really hold back?"

"Well," I mumbled as I thought about the recent fight. Truthfully though, after a certain moment, everything was a blur, "I don't think so. I mean, I wasn't in full Mortem so I guess I did hold back."

"Why didn't you transform?" She asked quietly.

Frowning, I looked down at my hands and flexed them while answering, "Because you weren't in trouble."

The answer didn't satisfy her. With the push of my shoulder, she stalked off. Huffing, I slowly followed.

X

Hinata and I had been in our room doing homework when there was a knock on the door. I was moving to get it, but she snapped that I needed to stop procrastinating and finished up the assignment that was due tomorrow. I hate when she got all motherly like this, it honestly blew my mood. It wasn't like it wasn't going to get done. Even if I had to finish it in my other classes, I would make sure it would be turned in on time. Plus, Asuma was totally counting on me for this homework; I didn't want to let him down.

When Hinata answered the door, we saw a blonde with a sheepish smile standing outside the door. With a small smile of my own, I watched the nervous boy scratch at the back of his head, "Hey there…"

"Hey," I waved, slightly amused. Hinata, on the other hand, simply turned around and walked back to her bed.

Naruto noticed the cold shoulder, but didn't say anything about it. Instead, he only frowned slightly as he stepped inside, "Yeah, I wanted to come by and apologize."

"You don't need to," I assured as I stood up, smiling as he shifted uncomfortably. Then, opening my arms, I wrapped them around him in a hug. He hesitated at first, but soon enough I felt his arms wrapping around my shoulders as he squeezed me into him, "I'm just glad you didn't get hurt."

My ear was right against his chest, so his chuckle sounded like a rumbling thunder, "I heard you were the one that got pretty fucked up this time around."

I stepped back and grinned, "Yeah, but that's because your Mortem form is a bad ass fox that is hard to fight against."

He laughed again with a smile, "Yeah, I've heard it's pretty wild. I'm glad you are ok too, and that you can take a punch."

"I think I would have been worse if Gaara hadn't stopped my landing at the end," I admitted with a sigh, "For sure that would have had me down for a day or two."

"Ah," He gave another weak smile as he started to apologize again. I stopped him with the push against his shoulder, "Shut up, I don't want to hear it. I'm tough, and we both ended up being ok. So we are cool, alright Naruto?"

Sighing, he gave in with a nod and a grin, "Alright then, fine," Then after a moment, he said, "Ino and I planned on taking a walk tonight- you know before curfew. Did you wanna join?"

I perked, "Yess!" But before I could get too excited, Hinata's flat tone cut in, "She has homework to do."

Deflating, I looked at Hinata with an annoyed huff. I stopped though, because her facial expression was just a bit too scary for my taste. Cringing, I offered meekly, "I will do it when I get back."

"You are going to be up till midnight just trying to finish," She informed with a glare, then whipping her head at Nartuto, she pressed, "And I'm sure Naruto wouldn't be able to control himself for another fight anyway, so what's the point?"

My head instinctively jerked back at the stab she was making. Even if it wasn't towards me, the words she spoke kind of hurt. With a frown, I mumbled, "Hey, just a second. You shouldn't-"

Before I could say anything more, Naruto was stepping in my line of sight. Bowing deeply, he said sincerely, "I'm so sorry about this Hinata, I'll do better to control myself."

"You honestly tried to injure her today Naruto, do you know that?" Hinata asked in a cold tone with her arms crossed. She watched as Naruto straightened up. I peeked around to see him frowning at Hinata's words, "You were attacking her like you didn't know her at all."

"I blanked out," he explained, a deep frown on his face, "I didn't know what I was doing. I can't help it when I'm in Mortem-"

"No, you can," She snapped, cutting him off. Cringing at her tone, I shrunk back and sat on my bed as I listened, "I don't care how hard Sakura has worked in improving her skills, when it comes to fighting you she always- ALWAYS- holds back. Even in the serious matches that we have every so often. I watch her pull back on the attacks that she **knows **will hurt you. She is able to control herself Naruto, why not you?"

"She's defense," He answered softly.

"I believe that you honestly allow yourself to go wild just because everyone gives you the excuse that you are a very strong offense," Hinata continued, not even giving Naruto's answer a thought, "But in my studies, I've learned that Mortem is a stage for protection, not abusive power when a Certo is beat and down for the count. I understand that I **wouldn't** understand what is going through a Certo's mind in Mortem, but I do know that you have a small amount of control- no matter what type of Certo you may be or who you are. So Naruto, I'm only asking you to give Sakura what you have been receiving from her; she pulls her punches all the time, so when the time comes that you are winning again, why don't you pull yours?"

There was silence, a heart pounding one. I held my breath and waited for Naruto's reply. I was already feeling guilty that I couldn't save him from the talking to he was getting from Hinata, but honestly she would have acted like a cold stranger until she spoke her mind. Maybe it was good that she was getting it out of the way tonight.

Then, after many seconds passing, Naruto replied with a soft tone, "Alright. I get what you are saying and you are right. I should work on my control, and if the time ever comes around again, I'll make sure to pull my punches. I promise… Hinata."

The way he said her name at the end caused me to scrunch my eyebrows. It seemed like he was saying it gently, as if he were holding her while speaking his words. I couldn't explain it, and didn't have much time to think about it. Hinata then stood from her bed with Naruto stepping back to give her room. As her hair tumbled down her shoulder and back, she slid her gray eyes up to him.

Her expression was hard at first, but moments later it was melting as a soft smile appeared on her lips. Then, with the stretch of her arms, she wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and hugged him close. He didn't seem to hesitate this time around; his arms instantly wrapped around her to hug her back.

"I'm sorry for being rude," she mumbled against him. I hardly heard it because it was so muffed and quiet.

"I deserved it," his deep voice replied with a heavy sigh, "Thanks for not beating me up."

A laugh escaped Hinata, and with a smile I knew everything would be fine. As they pulled apart, they gave each other another small smile. I watched for a moment, waiting for them to say something to each other, but the moment never came. With an awkward lift of my eyebrow, I started slowly, "So, uh, about that walk?"

"Right," Naruto said with a firm nod while turning towards me, "I better get going. Guess you can join us some other night?"

"Tomorrow," I begged with a pout, "I won't have any homework and it's Friday! We should do something."

He chuckled before nodding, "Right, tomorrow then."

I grinned, excited already. After that he left, saying his goodbyes before shutting the door. With a smile, I looked over at Hinata and said, "It was nice he stopped by to say sorry. He's such a great guy." The moment my eyes reached Hinata's, I saw the blush at her cheeks. Scrunching my eyebrows, I asked, "Hey, what's up with you?"

She looked away as she rushed, "Nothing, you are right though; it was nice that he stopped by just to apologize."

"Yeah…" I said slowly with a suspicious gaze on her, "Why are you blushing?"

"Because the amount of homework you have gotten done is embarrassing."

I deflated and flopped into my bed with a groan. She thought it was hilarious, but it wasn't! A 5 page paper was far too serious for laughter. So, with a huff, I went back to finishing my work.

Even without going on that walk with Ino and Naruto, I didn't finish until midnight.

* * *

**There, that's some potential NaruHina for your face. But as I stated before, it's going to be a clusterfuck. Prepare thyself!**

**Off to see Iron man (my favorite superhero since I was like 9) I'm excited.**

**Read, reveiw, demand more of me! I think I'll but some Ino Saku in the next chapter if I can think of a decent reason. Sorry it's going so slow. But the pace seems almost perfect to me**

**SHYCADET LOVES, out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N - **So I lied and THIS will be the last one before an actual game. Sorry. At least there are some good parts... Um. Like-

Oh whatever just read it.

**DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto**

* * *

Tayuya and I walked down the hall together. We were heading to lunch, but unfortunately Hinata wasn't with us. Just the other day they split our schedule, leaving me alone in all my classes. Well, not exactly alone- I mean there were literally about 20 others in my class. I just never had the notion of speaking to them till now, because I was fine with only hanging out with Hinata and then I had the team after school.

It's only been three days without her on my schedule and I was already slowly losing it. I'm not sure if it's a trait for Certos, but it was like I suddenly couldn't stop moving at all times. Every second of the day was spent with me doing something; Tapping my foot, playing with my pen, shifting and looking over my shoulder every moment. But when I glanced around, I noticed that a lot of the Certos didn't have their Lorums with them. I wasn't the only one who had to deal with this, but it didn't ease me at all.

"Competitions start off next week, are you nervous?" Tayuya asked, attempting to help me keep my mind off of Hinata. She had been doing it for days now, rambling and propping me into conversation. It helped with the sudden anxiety I've gained over the past three days, so I was grateful to have her around.

"Yeah actually I am," I admitted as we walked into the lunch room, "Temari said we are going against Legion 5 for our first match together."

"Legion 5 huh?" She nodded in interest as we stood in line, "Seems like a pretty solid match up."

"Do you know much about them?" I asked, watching as she put her headphones back on her ears.

"Um," She mumbled distractedly, lifting up her mp3 player to turn on her music, "Uhh let's see… Well the last I heard they had a pretty good Lorum that is amazing at throwing weapons. Um, and they have this Certo with this killer sense of smell."

Blinking, the memory of Naruto passed through my mind, "You know I think I heard of that guy."

"Yeah," Tayuya nodded, "He is a freaking wolf. It's going to be an amazing fight, seeing him go against Naruto."

"Do you know his name?" I asked as we grabbed our food.

"Yeah, I think it's Kiba," She answered. I fell into thought as we walked to a nearby table. Before we got there though, Tayuya turned to me and suggested, "Why don't we sit outside today."

"We can do that?" I asked curiously, following her as we left the cafeteria with our trays.

"Yeah, they have a nice set up right over here," Tayuya explained as we made our way outside. She was right; there were tables with trees and umbrellas right there outside of the back door. I'm not sure how I missed it, "I'm just sick of all the noise." She complained.

"You haven't figured out how to control your sense of Ki yet?" I questioned, making my way around the clear table we found.

She plopped on her seat and huffed, "No, but it's getting a bit better. At the moment the people I talk to don't sound as loud. You used to be a raging force that literally gave me a screaming migraine, but now I can hardly ear you. It's like…. I've adjusted to your Ki."

I blinked, a bit surprised by the description. Then with a nod of my head, I offered, "Well that is pretty good at least. I mean, it looks like your senses are starting to settle, if only a bit. Just a step at a time I guess."

"Yeah," She mumbled with a bite of her burger. Chewing she continued, "I mean, I don't want to lose the sense completely. Believe it or not, screaming headache 24/7 and all, I like that I have this ability. I'm the only person I know with it and some of the sounds are actually elegant and beautiful. I just wish I had a chance to turn it off sometimes, you know, when I need a break."

My eyebrows rose, "Elegant… and beautiful?" I asked with a small smile starting to form at my lips.

Realization of what she said suddenly hit her. With a flustered expression, she looked away and snapped in a stumbling sort of way, "I just mean that, well, some of the Ki sound nice. Oh whatever! I don't need to-"

"Well hold on," I stepped in with an assuring smile, "I'm not making fun of you. I'm just curious. Who have you heard with such, uh… sound?"

Biting her lip, she glanced back at me to make sure I was serious. When I gave her an honest look, she sighed and went back to eating, "There is this guy, some bubble guy that uses his Ki like little bursts of bubble energy, has a certain sound to his Ki that is… incredible. Yours is a raging noise; Naruto's is a beating drum; But this guy- his is like the strings of violins."

She was watching me, making sure I wouldn't laugh in her face. I knew I had to control my facial expression or risk having her completely lose trust in me when it came to certain sensitive subjects such as these. I knew this, but it was hard. I couldn't help my smile pulling a little bit wider. Nor could I help the shift in my features, as if I was realizing for the first time there was more to Tayuya than what I was outwardly given. The combination of my reaction must have been subtle enough, because she only ended up looking away with a faint blush, but not shutting down completely.

"So," I began softly, smile still on my face, "Do you like the sound of his Ki? Does it draw you to this guy?"

Her red hair at her shoulders tumbled as she shifted at my questions. With a shrug, she mumbled, "Sort of. I just really like the sound of it, don't know why."

"Well," I mused with a glance around. It was a really nice day out; I was surprised more people weren't out here for lunch, "Have you ever attempted to listen to classical music?" The thought must have been all the way in left field for her; Just the mere mention of that genre of music made her frown and look at me as if I were crazy. With a laugh, I pressed, "I know, I thought so too at first. But just like rock, rap, or pop music: there are different types of classical. Maybe you would find something you like."

"Maybe," She mumbled with another shift, "Never thought about it. Classical just seemed too… gross to me."

I nodded, "Yeah, like I said I thought so too. But some of it is good, like the action movie music- or, emotional scene music. Honestly, I'm sure you'd find something that fits your interest that still contains… your elegant mixed with hard core taste."

Narrowing her eyes, Tayuya looked at me with a small glare, "I'm not sure if you are making fun of me or being serious."

"We are friends dork," I replied with a laugh and a roll of my eyes, "I'm being serious of course. I mean, obviously this is something you don't tell a lot of people."

She looked down at her tray, "Yeah, not really. Music is…"

"It's an intimate interest," I finished with a nod. She glanced back up with another look of suspicion, but I only laughed and rolled my eyes again, "No, I'm not making fun of you. It's true! Music is a personal type thing. Not everyone likes the same type of music, so of course some people feel a bit iffy about admitting their taste."

"Well, what do you prefer?" She asked with another bite of her burger, getting a bit more comfortable now.

I thought with a hum, "Well… rock is my preference, but I like some classical too; few country songs and even fewer pop songs. Oh, and there is this new thing I found called dubstep; absolutely amazing to me- it gives me chills."

"Huh," She said with an 'hmph' of surprise, "I wouldn't take you for a rock girl."

"Wouldn't take you for a classical," I countered, smiling as she looked away, "But I still like you all the same."

"You're an asshole, you know that?" She grumbled. I laughed and asked why, grinning as she answered, "Because you are so understanding it makes me angry."

"Oh god," I laughed out again, "That is actually pretty funny."

"For who?" She complained with her amber eyes closing in annoyance.

"For us both," I answered before standing up, "Anyway, I'm heading out. Have fun in your classes."

Just before I could leave, the call of my name stopped me. I turned around curiously, watching with interest as Tayuya seemed to almost fidget with nervousness, "There is play my Lorum is in, this stupid thing for the school that she got herself into out of boredom- which in the end she ended up liking it and that just blows my mind." She glanced up at me, and when her eyes caught mine, she looked away and rushed, "So she wants me to see it, of course, but I don't think I can bear sitting there by myself in such a shitfest of an hour of my life. I was wondering if you wanted to tag along."

I'm not sure why, but the whole ordeal had me grinning. She looked back up at me to see my goofy look, which automatically put her on the defensive with a glare, "What? What the hell are you smiling about?"

Shrugging, I beamed, "Nothing. Just that… you honestly friended me so hard core you are inviting me to your Lorum's play."

"Oh fuck off," She snapped with a huff, "Never mind, you prick."

I laughed and waved her off, "I'm coming, just tell me the time."

"I don't want you to show anymore!" She raged with a glare, but I only rolled my eyes and pressed, "Stop being a baby and tell me."

Huffing again, she admitted, "It's tomorrow night at 8."

"Great!" I replied happily, "Hinata might show up as well if she doesn't have anything planned."

"That's alright," Tayuya answered with a nod.

Giving her one last smile and a wave, I told her my goodbyes and left. The rest of the school day didn't have me as anxious. I'm not sure why, but it might have been the fact that Tayuya invited me to something completely trivial and stupid, and I was really happy about the fact that I had a new awesome actual friend that wasn't Hinata or part of the team.

X

When the end of the day came around, I went straight to find Hinata. We had a spot where we would meet up when school was out, at some weird looking tree near the park. We chose the location because it was near the side building where we exited at. It didn't seem she was waiting long, but she was talking with Temari and Ino when I arrived.

"Hey," I greeted as I walked up, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We have a whole bunch of classes with Hinata," Temari answered with a smile towards her, "She told us she was meeting you here so we walked her over."

"Oh," I nodded, then turning to Hinata I asked, "How come you didn't tell me? I didn't know you had classes with them."

"We see them every day," Hinata answered with a shrug, "Thought it wasn't big of a deal."

"Yeah Sakura," Ino teased with a smirk, "She doesn't have to tell you _everything _does she?"

I rolled my eyes, but laughed, "Guess not. So what are you guys going to be up to?"

"Gaara and I are going to set up the machines for practice tonight," Temari replied.

"And me and Naruto are going to find Asuma. For some strange reason, he seems very interested in finding some control while he's in mortem," Ino answered with a small frown of confusion, "Don't know why the sudden interest, but I guess it's good he's taking the incentive."

I blinked, then with a grin at Hinata, I admitted, "I think it's because the other night he came to apologize and… well he felt really bad about the all of it." Hinata glanced away, a slight blush on her face. I figured it would be wise to avoid the whole, 'Hinata gave him a stern talking to' ordeal.

"Oh," Ino nodded with the realization, "That makes sense. Whatever, I just hope this goes by fast. I have so much home work to do."

"Same here," Temari huffed, "I should get going so I can finish early and start some before practice."

"Have fun!" I called as she waved before walking away, "You going to?"

"Yup," Ino answered with a sigh, "I think he went straight there, so I'll just go ahead and go there too. Wish us luck, hopefully it isn't a huge time consuming thing."

"Don't you want him to gain control though?" I asked with the scrunch of my eyebrows.

"I do," she assured, but shifted with a frown, "It's just that… I don't know. I just feel wary about the whole thing- like, he's about to bite off more than he can chew, you know? I only know as much about Certos as they tell us in school, but I heard it's pretty hard to control your mortem state. Naruto isn't the type for patience, so I can see him getting frustrated easy and losing his cool in a whole other way than when he does while fighting you."

"Well," Hinata started with a soft voice, "That makes sense, but if you encourage him, I think he will be able to do it with a bit more patience."

"Hopefully," Ino mumbled.

"No doubt," I assured with a confident nod, "We will all cheer him on and he'll get it done. He's such a hardheaded guy, so it's not like he'll give up."

She smiled, already looking a bit more confident, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Yup," I grinned, "So good luck. Hopefully it doesn't take too much time, like you said."

"Thanks," she replied with another smile while looking up at me, "I guess we'll see you guys at practice."

"See you!" I called as she left as well. After a moment, I turned to Hinata and huffed, "You totally love embarrassing me in front of everyone, don't you?"

She gave me a smile before turning and walking towards our dorm. I followed as she admitted, "It does have its fun moments. Plus, it isn't like I do it on purpose- and it isn't like you aren't adorable when you get in your little phases."

"My phases are me being a proper Certo," I pressed in a matter-of-fact tone, "I just want to know anything about everything because it helps me feel better."

"Oh, and you knowing about Ino and Temari being in my classes help you feel better?" She asked with an amused glance.

"Yes," I admitted, "It's bad enough I can't be with you anymore."

"Honestly," Hinata mumbled as we walked, "It's like there will never be space between us."

"Is that bad?" I asked with a small frown, "I mean, there has never been space between us before."

"We were at the mansion then," She replied with the roll of her eyes, "All we had was each other."

I frowned a bit more. Growing silent for a moment, I looked away and let my thoughts wander. It was different when Hinata depended on me and I was the one suggesting maybe I should be running off somewhere. I had no idea if it were the other way around, it would sting so much.

The silence must have alerted Hinata, because randomly she stopped and turned around. I stopped as well, but avoided her eyes. She sighed before saying softly, "I was kidding."

"No you weren't," I replied with my eyes still anywhere but hers. Smiling weakly, I stared at the trees, "It's ok though. I get it, and you are right. Maybe I am being suffocating."

"No that isn't it," She rushed. I glanced at her to see her shifting uncomfortably, "It's just-"

"Doesn't matter," I assured, attempting to give her another smile that wasn't as frail as the one before. It didn't work, I'm sure, but I continued anyway, "Listen, I'm going to go to the park, maybe I can find one of my friends to hang out with."

"What?" She started with a small frown, "But we were supposed to go to our room and do homework together."

"Don't have any," That wasn't exactly true, but I didn't feel like mopping around her with my feelings hurt. It was too puppy like and embarrassing, "I'll see you at practice."

"Wait, come on," She started with a deeper frown, "I didn't mean it like-"

"I'll see you soon k?" I cut off before walking away with a wave.

And with that, I wandered off alone. There were no friends to find, because I hardly had any. At the end of it all, I just ended up sitting at next to the lake while watching the water. During my solitude, I shifted, tapped, and looked over my shoulder. Each time I noticed my behavior I frowned and attempted to stop. It would work for a moment… until I would shift, tap, and look all over again only two minutes later.

When it came time for practice- right before I left- I looked over at the water and promised myself that I would learn to be better about having distance between me and Hinata. Even though the thought made my stomach churn in dislike and my chest squeeze in slight hurt, I forced myself to promise to go through with it.

She was right, we weren't at home anymore. Things are bound to be different, so I need to learn to deal with it.

X

Our practice was normal and pretty uneventful. The only thing remotely exciting was afterwards. Temari had us gathered in the middle for a small pep-talk. Even though the competition was next week, it seemed like I wasn't the only one who had it on my mind.

The talk wasn't anything very spectacular; it was just the topic that had me thrilled I guess. Since it was spoken out loud by someone other than me, it felt like the fact of us actually being in a competition was finally written in stone. Of course it was going to happen, but now it just felt true and real.

"There's a couple of other things we'd have to do before we can be in the games," Temari explained at the end, "Like we have to attend a class that is an hour long that talks of Lodus, the rules, safety procedures, and all of that. It's something each Legion does at their own time and pace, so it will only be us in that room at the time. That being said, we need to figure out a time where everyone is free."

"What about tomorrow?" Gaara kicked off the discussion with his arms crossed in thought, "Anyone free then?"

There was a collective yes, until it came to me. With a meek smile, I admitted that I am busy.

"With what?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Uh, a play," I answered with a nervous laugh, "Got invited by my friend Tayuya, so yeah."

"Tayuya?" Ino said in surprise, "Oh god, I haven't seen her in ages."

I smiled, "Yup, I eat lunch with her. We sometimes speak of you."

In the middle of the conversation, Hinata piped in, "You are going to a play tomorrow? I didn't know that."

"She invited me today," I answered with a small shift and my eyes sliding carefully away, "Figured you didn't want to know about it so…"

"Why wouldn't I?" She pressed, and I could hear the frown in her voice.

"Well what about the day after tomorrow?" Gaara continued, trying to get us back on track.

"That's a Friday," Naruto complained, but Temari cut it off, "Yeah, so what? Rather do it on a Saturday then?"

"No," He replied quickly with the wave of his hands, "Friday sounds good."

"Everyone else?" Temari asked with a glance around. We all nodded that we were free, "Great, you guys are dismissed, see you at dinner."

Everyone dispersed and went separate ways, leaving me and Hinata alone. Before she could say anything, I walked away first. To be honest, it felt a bit awkward to be with her by myself after what happened earlier this afternoon. Nervously avoiding her was probably not the best option, but I couldn't stop my legs from moving.

"So, am I invited to this play as well?" Hinata asked as she followed right behind me.

"Sure," I said with a crack in my voice, "You can come if you want."

"Were you going to invite me?" She pressed, slowly falling into step right next to me.

"I don't know," I answered with a swallow, looking away as she leaned to catch my eyes, "I mean, I'm sure I would have mentioned it eventually."

A moment of silence passed between us. Attempting to keep my nerves at ease, I flexed my hands and roughly rubbed my thumbs against my fingers. Maybe it was something I did a bit too often when I felt uneasy, because seconds later I felt a hand gently holding mine. Setting my jaw, I continued to look away but allowed Hinata to carry on.

Sighing, she whispered, "Sakura…"

"Don't," I mumbled with a shake of my head, still looking away, "It really doesn't matter, I'm being stupid, and I don't even want to talk about it."

"I'm sorry," She continued anyway, "I didn't mean it like that and I shouldn't have said it at all."

"It's fine," I pressed, a little more snap in my tone this time, "Seriously, just let it go."

"Truthfully if it were the other way around," she went on, completely ignoring me, "It would hurt hearing things like that from you, and I didn't realize till afterwards. So I'm sorry."

I let out a huge sigh and stopped walking. Taking my hand away from her, I gave her a glare and explained, "It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. Let's just forget about it."

I always got like this. When my feelings were hurt, I was always too embarrassed to admit it. It seemed stupid to me, all the time, the reasons why I hurt. It was never a good enough reason to complain about. Hinata always saw right through me though. Even now, she was looking me straight into my glare, unfazed.

Biting her lip, she shifted and murmured, "How about I make it up to you?"

It was annoying that nothing I did fazed her and the fact that she knew me so well I wouldn't be able to drop the subject. Rolling my eyes, I agreed only for the sole reason of moving past my stupid emotions, "What did you have in mind?"

"I stop making fun of you," She offered. I laughed humorlessly, but she continued, "I stop teasing you about something you honestly can't help and start actually outwardly showing that I enjoy the attention."

The last bit caught my attention. With curious look, I asked, "Do you honestly enjoy it?"

"Yes," She replied simply, "I really do. But sometimes it's embarrassing for me to admit, so I tease you instead and that isn't fair."

My heart stumbled at her words. With a shift, a mumbled, "Jeez… Honestly it doesn't matter."

"It does if your feelings get hurt," She pressed quietly, "So please accept my apology and I promise to be a bit nicer about things."

There was something about Hinata that I just couldn't escape. Maybe it was because we have always been together, or maybe it was the fact that she always knew the right words to say to get me out of my shell and help me feel better. No matter what it was, the smile that slipped my lips couldn't be stopped.

Without saying a word, I nodded, and with a smile of her own, she took my hand and started to drag me away.

"I didn't get any homework done because I was worried about you," She informed in her normal voice with a huff, "And I know you were lying about not having any homework, so we are going to go get some done before dinner."

"Oh great," I joked with a deflating tone, "Sounds like fun."

"You bet your ass it's fun," Hinata snapped back, "Getting work done and not failing is always fun."

* * *

**Potentially potentials everywhere! Potentials over hereeeee**

**Potential over thereeeee! POTENTIALS POTENTIALLY BEING POTENTIAL ALL OVER THE PLACE.**

**I've now said that word so many time it lost meaning... And now it sounds weird and now I feel like I'm using the wrong word. LOL Oh well.**

**Seriously though... I hope it's the right word. Anyway. Action to come. Ino/Sakura happening I promise next chapter. I just wanted to give some spotlight on these two. **

**CLUSTERFUCK ACTIVATED!**

**Shycadet loves, out.**


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